Gisele Bündchen is an open book — and speaking about her suicidal ideations of the past.
The Brazilian model has been admirably transparent about her new life and publicized divorce with NFL veteran Tom Brady. In an upcoming “CBS News Sunday Morning” interview, however, Bündchen is reflecting on her past modeling days.
“I was in tunnels,” she told host Lee Cowan. “I couldn’t breathe. And then I started being in studios, and I felt, like, suffocated. I lived on the ninth floor, and I had to go up the stairs because I was afraid I would be stuck on the elevator and I’d be hyperventilating.”
“You know when you can’t breathe even when the windows are open, you feel like, I don’t want to live like this, you know what I mean?” Bündchen continued before being asked if she ever did “really think about” actually jumping out of a window: “Yeah. For, like, a second.”
The mother of two recently expressed how grateful she was to quit drinking and joyously celebrated her 43rd birthday, but also detailed her frustrations about the public divorce. Bündchen’s mental health struggles are anything but rare in the fashion industry.
The death of fashion designer Kate Spade in 2018 spurred new research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that showed a 30% rise in suicide rates in 25 U.S. states between 1999 and 2016. Multiple models had taken their lives during that time period.
“Kate suffered from depression and anxiety for many years,” her husband, Andy Spade, told The New York Times in 2018. “She was actively seeking help and working closely with her doctors to treat her disease, one that takes far too many lives.”
Bündchen told People in 2018 that she “actually had the feeling of, ‘If I just jump off my roof, this is going to end, and I never have to worry about this feeling of my world closing in.’”
Andre Penner/File/Associated Press
“When I think back on that moment, and that 23-year-old girl, I want to cry,” she wrote in her memoir per Page Six. “I want to tell her that everything will be all right, that she hasn’t even begun to live her life. But in that moment, the only answer seemed to be to jump.”
The mother of two, whose concerns about Brady returning to the NFL and later the couple’s divorce being very publicized, has changed her perspective since then — and been nothing but grateful despite being naturally saddened about the familial break.
“I look into my life, and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she told Cowan in a separate preview of Sunday’s interview. “I wouldn’t have any other life, I wouldn’t have done it if they say, ‘Can you change something in your life?’ I wouldn’t change absolutely anything.”
Bündchen reportedly first met Brady on a blind date in 2006. She then married him, and they welcomed their first child in 2009. They had one more child in 2012. They finalized their divorce in October 2022. Bündchen opened up about their split in March.
“Listen, I have always cheered for him, and I would continue forever,” she told Vanity Fair at the time. “If there’s one person I want to be the happiest in the world, it’s him, believe me. I want him to achieve and conquer. I want all his dreams to come true.”
She continued, “That’s what I want, really from the bottom of my heart.”
If you or someone you know needs help, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org for mental health support. Additionally, you can find local mental health and crisis resources at dontcallthepolice.com. Outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention.