Gisele Bündchen didn't expect to get emotional while talking about her divorce from Tom Brady.
In a new interview, the Brazilian supermodel gets candid about life after parting ways with the former NFL quarterback, to whom she was married for 13 years.
"Everything I've experienced, it made me realize what I want and what I don't want," Bündchen told ABC News' Robin Roberts for the new interview “IMPACT x Nightline: Gisele Bündchen: Climbing the Mountain,” released March 7.
Bündchen became emotional as they discussed how one doesn't go into a marriage thinking it's going to end, saying it is a "heartbreaking" situation to deal with.
"You said it was the — I think the phrase you used was the death of a dream," Roberts said before asking, "How are you?"
"Well, when you say ..." the model began, before pausing and getting teary. "Sorry, guys, I didn't know ... can I have a little moment?"
After taking a breath, Bündchen continued her thoughts.
"It's definitely a time of, you know, a transition that had to take place, and it's not something that you — I don't think you wish for that, you know?" she said. "But I think sometimes in life things happen. I feel so blessed because, like, I wouldn't change anything in my life. I had incredible experiences. I learned so much. I have my children, which are the biggest blessings in my life.
“And now I get to create — it's a new season, a new chapter in my life, and I get to learn new things, and I get to walk my path in a different way, you know?
"And I'm grateful for all of it. I'm grateful for every lesson."
Bündchen touched on co-parenting with Brady. The couple are parents to son Benjamin and daughter Vivian. Brady is also father to son Jack, whom he shares with actor Bridget Moynahan.
"There's easier days than others. But it's amazing that the kids — they're super smart children," Bündchen said, laughing. "They know what they can get away with. So I think it's natural that it has different rules, and kids just adapt and they're going to try to do what they want. And I can only control what I do."
She added that it's "amazing" that the children get to spend time with both parents because it's "more enriching for their lives, two different worlds, and they get to learn from two different worlds."
At separate points in the interview, Bündchen gushed about being a "bonus mom" to Jack.
"I raised him. I love him," she said.
In the wake of her divorce and as she makes that transition she mentioned, Bündchen said she feels at peace.
"I'm very committed to living my truth more than ever, so I would say that's where my heart is now, where I am right now. I'm living my truth and I'm not apologizing for it," she explained.
That also includes leaving the door open to finding love again.
"I think right now, really, my priority is my kids and creating this beautiful sanctuary for our family. And then, yes, like, why not, right? I think life is full of surprises and I don't have a crystal ball about what's going to happen tomorrow, but, yeah." (She declined to comment to Roberts on the rumors she's dating jiujitsu instructor Joaquim Valente.)
The wide-ranging and personal interview, which took place at her Florida home, also included Bündchen talking about the ups and downs of her modeling career and her new cookbook, “Nourish.”
Bündchen and Brady had been together for 16 years and married for 13 when they announced that they had "amicably" finalized their divorce in October 2022.
“With much gratitude for our time together, Tom and I have amicably finalized our divorce,” she wrote on her Instagram story at the time. “My priority has always been and will continue to be our children whom I love with all my heart. We will continue co-parenting to give them the love, care and attention they greatly deserve.”
“The decision to end a marriage is never easy but we have grown apart and while it is, of course, difficult to go through something like this, I feel blessed for the time we had together and only wish the best for Tom always,” she added in part.
Months later, Bündchen told Vanity Fair that her divorce was “like a death and a rebirth.”
“It’s tough because you imagine your life was going to be a certain way, and you did everything you could, you know?” she said.
“IMPACT x Nightline: Gisele Bündchen: Climbing the Mountain” is available to stream on Hulu.
