Tom Brady reveals how Gisele Bündchen divorce affected him mentally during his last NFL season

The final chapter of Tom Brady’s legendary NFL career carried far more weight than most fans realized at the time. While the seven time Super Bowl champion was still leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the field, his personal life was undergoing a major shift behind the scenes.

Years later, Brady has begun speaking more openly about how difficult that period truly was.During a conversation on FS1’s The Herd with Colin Cowherd, the former quarterback looked back at the 2022 season and admitted it came during one of the most emotionally complicated moments of his life. His marriage to supermodel Gisele Bündchen was ending, and the timing overlapped with the final stretch of his two decade football journey.

For Brady, the challenge was not just physical. It was deeply personal.

Tom Brady admits his final season came during a difficult personal chapter

Tom Brady did not hide how demanding that final season felt. Speaking candidly about the experience, he explained that personal issues off the field weighed heavily on him during the year.

“My last season was tough,” Brady, 48, confessed to Cowherd on the Thursday, Jan. 15 episode of The Herd with Colin Cowherd.“I was going through, I had a lot of, you know, a personal family issue," he continued, seemingly in reference to his and Bündchen's divorce in October 2022.

"And it was a challenge, and it was very … it just took a lot out of me in terms of, you know, my ability to play.”Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen finalized their divorce in October 2022 after more than a decade of marriage. At the time, Brady was still in the middle of what became his 23rd and final NFL season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.Interestingly, Brady had already stepped away once before. In February 2022 he announced his retirement, only to reverse that decision weeks later to return for one more season.

Looking back now, the legendary quarterback said he did not feel like he had anything left to prove.“I had 23 years of [football] so I didn’t think I was missing anything, retiring,” he told Cowherd “I felt like I always had a goal — 45. I was 45 years old, I wanted to spend time with my kids, I felt like, okay, now it’s time for me to be at all my kids’ games. They’ve been to enough of their dad’s games.”Family has clearly become Brady’s top priority since his official retirement in February 2023.

He shares two children, Benjamin and Vivian, with Bündchen, and also has a son, Jack, from a previous relationship with actress Bridget Moynahan.Even as he balances fatherhood and business ventures, Brady still reflects on his final NFL season with a sense of responsibility toward his teammates.“I felt like I owed to my teammates and coaches to give them everything I had," he said. "I wish it could have been a little bit better at the end. But it was just a unique situation and a unique year for me.”Since retiring, Brady has shifted his focus toward new projects and spending time with his children. The transition may not have been easy, but the former quarterback now seems determined to embrace life beyond football.