Tom Brady has opened up about his divorce from wife of 13 years Gisele Bundchen, saying that he’s focusing on his family and football in the midst of a “very amicable situation.”
“I think there is a lot of professionals in life that go through things that they deal with at work and they deal with at home,” the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback said on his weekly podcast Monday, a few days after he and Bundchen announced they were divorcing.
“Obviously, the good news is it’s a very amicable situation, and I’m really focused on two things: taking care of my family, and certainly my children, and secondly doing the best job I can to win football games. That’s what professionals do.”
Talking to sportscaster Jim Gray in his weekly appearance on their “Let’s Go!” podcast, Brady added: “You focus at work when it’s time to work, and then when you come home, you focus on the priorities that are at home. All you can do is the best you can do. That’s what I’ll just continue to do as long as I’m working and as long as I’m being a dad.”
Gray asked Brady if there is a challenge compartmentalizing between the two.
“I think that’s what being a professional is,” Brady said. “I’ve dealt with a lot of challenging situations on and off the field over 23 years, and a lot of it does play out in front of a lot of people.
“So I think the interesting thing for a football player and an athlete in general is you’re out there, I always say we’re not actors even though we’re in TV. That is our real self out there.
“We’re trying to do our best. That’s how people really have gotten to know me over the years by being on TV, and that is my authentic self that’s out there to compete with my teammates every day and you’re giving all you can to the team.
“Everyone is going through different things. We all have our unique challenges in life. We’re all humans. We do the best we can do.”
Brady and Bundchen each announced on Instagram their divorce on Friday.
Brady, 45, had retired from the NFL in February, only to later reverse that decision. He took an 11-day leave of absence from training camp in August to “deal with personal things,” according to his head coach Todd Bowles.
In a recent conversation on his podcast, Brady talked about some of the personal costs of playing in the NFL for two decades.
“I haven’t had a Christmas in 23 years and I haven’t had a Thanksgiving in 23 years, I haven’t celebrated birthdays with people that I care about that are born from August to late January. And I’m not able to be at funerals and I’m not able to be at weddings,” Brady said.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Elle magazine published in September, Bündchen, 42, said she had “concerns” about her husband returning to the field after initially retiring last winter.
“This is a very violent sport, and I have my children and I would like him to be more present,” Bündchen told the publication. “I have definitely had those conversations with him over and over again. But ultimately, I feel that everybody has to make a decision that works for [them]. He needs to follow his joy, too.”
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