Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen’s rocky marriage has ‘NOTHING to do with football’

The troubled relationship between Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen in recent weeks has had nothing to do with the NFL player’s decision to return to football after announcing his retirement — and the married couple still live in separate houses.

But Brady’s wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, 42, was conspicuously missing from the sidelines — and the stands — when the seven-time Super Bowl champion’s team lost 14-12 to Aaron Rodgers’s team.

Since rumors of issues between the couple first surfaced, there have been multiple reports claiming that the cause of their marital woes was Brady’s decision to reverse his career retirement in March 2022.

However, a source confirmed to DailyMail.com that Tom and Gisele’s issues have nothing at all to do with the former Patriots star’s football career.

Bündchen is her husband’s “number one cheerleader” and said she wouldn’t care if he played until he was in his 50s.

In an exclusive conversation with DailyMail.com, the source confirmed that reports that the couple had been living apart for the past month are accurate.

Brady and Bündchen married in 2009. In a September interview with elle, she spoke about the sacrifices she made for their marriage and her husband’s career.

The Brazilian said: ‘I’ve done my part, that is’ [to] be for it [Tom]. I moved to Boston and focused on creating a cocoon and a loving environment for my children to grow up in and support him and his dreams.”

During that interview, Bündchen spoke about the NFL, saying, “This is a very violent sport, and I have my kids and I wish he was there. I’ve certainly had those conversations with him before.’

In Sunday’s video, Brady, 45, hugs his three children: son Jack, 15, who he shares with Blue Bloods star Bridget Moynahan, and his two children with Gisele: Benjamin, 12, and Vivian, 9.

The seven-time Super Bowl winner bent over his daughter as she grinned from ear to ear before the game.

Then he hugged Benjamin before Vivian whispered to the quarterback and urged him to kiss her tenderly on the forehead. After he appears to run away to start the game, Brady doubles back to hug his oldest son.

The video was shared on the NFL and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Twitter pages. On the Bucs page, their post read, “All about family.”

Obviously, the kids were brought to the game by Brady’s mom and his sisters.

Despite rumors of trouble ahead of Brady’s last game against the Cowboys, she tweeted, “Let’s go @TomBrady! Let’s go Bucs!’

During the pre-game warmup, Brady was pictured wearing a t-shirt with his high school yearbook photo captioned, “Greatness Lasts Forever.”

Brady sustained a finger injury leading up to his confrontation with Aaron Rodgers’ Packers, the Bucs reported this week.

It was later revealed that the injury was on Brady’s ring finger, albeit on his right hand, rather than his left. Coach Todd Bowles said Friday the injury would not affect his ability to play.

During the game, Brady ducked to dodge a sack and fumbled 18 yards to break his knee brace and overturn the game by a penalty.

Brady, 45, is missing his top three receivers through injury and suspension and his favorite target to retire.

Still, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a chance against the Green Bay Packers after Brady connected with Russell Gage on a 1-yard touchdown with 14 seconds left. But a game delay pushed the 2-point conversion back to the 7 and Brady’s pass fell incomplete, giving the Packers a 14-12 win on Sunday.

“Our job is to go out and score points and we just don’t do that,” said Brady. “You’re not going to score points if you don’t perform well.”

Amid the alleged drama of the pair, Julia Rose, YouTuber Logan Paul’s girlfriend, came out publicly in defense of the supermodel.

Rose said in an appearance on Paul’s podcast, BS, “I personally think Giselle, including all these wives of these athletes, and girlfriends, these athletes, I don’t think they get enough credit.”

She went on, “I don’t feel like they’re honestly getting the credit they deserve for putting up with these men and within their companies and what they’re doing, I’m sorry, but Giselle doesn’t get nearly enough credit.”

Brady and Gisele have spoken fondly of his blended family, but at the time, Moynahan’s pregnancy came as a shock to all parties.

Brady was already in a relationship with Gisele in 2006 when he was stunned by the news that the actress was pregnant with their son.

Gisele has reflected on that time in her memoir, saying it turned her life “upside down,” adding that she didn’t have it “easy” to deal with.

However, the Brazilian model said her “heart expanded over time in ways she didn’t know were possible.”

Moynahan said in her own memoir that she “barely got out of the house” during her pregnancy because of all the attention, calling herself “withdrawn” and “wildly private.”

She wrote, “Having a baby should have been the most joyous time of my life, but instead I felt attacked.”

Gisele has said she doesn’t like calling herself “stepmother” to Jack and prefers to call herself “bonus mom.”

She has also called him her ‘bonus child’.

In an interview with Howard Stern, Brady said the period was “very tough” for Gisele.

He said, ‘To think she fell in love with this man, and now this man’s ex-girlfriend is pregnant. And it was quite a challenge for my son’s mother, because she didn’t have that in mind either.’

Gisele has talked in the past about how she put her modeling career second so that Brady could chase seven Super Bowl wins on her way to becoming arguably the greatest quarterback of all time.

In May, she told British Vogue: ‘I don’t think relationships just happen; it is never the fairy tale that people want to believe. It takes work to be really in sync with someone, especially after you have kids.

“His focus is on his career, mine is mostly on the kids.”

In a recent interview with Elle Magazine, Gisele said she had “concerns” about Brady returning to football, a decision that made him the oldest quarterback to ever play in the NFL.

She said: ‘This is a very violent sport, and I have my children and I wish he was more present.

“I’ve certainly had those conversations with him before. But in the end I feel like everyone should make a decision that works for (them). He must also follow his joy.’

Gisele added that she was “very satisfied, as a mother and as a wife,” adding a clear reference to her own career: “And now it’s my turn.”

But since Brady’s decision to retire, her life has once again been overshadowed by questions about football.

Gisele skipped an event during New York Fashion Week, even though she was supposed to attend and be in town.

She was reportedly seen crying on the phone and has been photographed with daughter Vivian Lake without Brady in sight.