Soft launching your jujitsu-trainer boyfriend in the New York Times is an incredibly chic move. It’s certainly more tasteful than a source close to your NFL-legend ex-husband claiming that the relationship was born out of an extramarital affair. Does this sound like a plotline for season three of And Just Like That …? Yes, but it’s also Gisele Bündchen’s real life.
In case you need a refresh, here are the major plot points: Bündchen and Tom Brady got divorced in 2022. Shortly after that, she was spotted in Costa Rica with her jujitsu trainer, Joaquim Valente. Around the same time, Brady was telling people that his plans for Christmas were to be alone in a hotel room. Bündchen and Valente continued to be spotted in ways that appeared increasingly romantic. By last August, he was picking her up from the airport — which all but confirmed their relationship to me. Meanwhile, TMZ published a quote from someone “connected to Tom” who claimed that the couple started dating long before June 2023. “They should add 2021 after June. Then the headline would be accurate,” the source said.
That brings us to today. As part of the media blitz for her new cookbook, Nourish, Bündchen opened up to the Times about her personal life, which included a blunt retort to the cheating rumors: “That is a lie.”
She continued: “This is something that happens to a lot of women who get blamed when they have the courage to leave an unhealthy relationship and are labeled as being unfaithful,” Bündchen said. “They have to deal with their communities. They have to deal with their family. Of course for me, it just happens to be a little bit amplified.”
She did confirm to the Times that she’s dating someone, and it doesn’t take too much reading between the lines to determine that it’s Valente. “This is the first time I am seeing someone that was a friend of mine first,” she said. “It’s very different. It is very honest and it’s very transparent.” Love that for her; she really is “so blessed.”