Tom Brady is widely considered to be one of the greatest American football quarterbacks of all time. He was a member of the New England Patriots for the first 20 seasons of his career and was a driving force in the team’s dynasty from 2001 to 2019. He retired in 2021 after playing for two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In his personal life, Brady has a complicated relationship with actress Bridget Moynahan, the mother of his firstborn child, John Edward “Jack” Moynahan. Bridget and Brady began dating in 2004 and broke up in early December 2006. Later that same month, Brady began dating Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen. However, in February 2007, Bridget revealed that she was 3-months pregnant with Brady’s child. The “Blue Bloods” star also makes it clear that this was not the ideal way she wanted to start a family.
Brady and Bridget decided to co-parent, and the football player ended up getting married to Bundchen in 2009. That same year, the couple welcomed a son named Benjamin into the world. Then in 2012, their second child, a girl named Vivian, was born. Bundchen has shared that she considers Brady’s son Jack to be a bonus son to her.
This complicated family dynamic is not traditional, but it seems that they make it work for them. Bridget and Bundchen make an effort to work together and get along, and the same goes for Brady as well. Read on to take a closer look at the interesting way all of these parents work together to make sure their kids grow up happy and healthy.
In 2008, Bridget Moynahan opened up about what it was like finding out she was pregnant with her ex-boyfriend’s child. The actress shared:
“I’m not sure anyone — and I could be wrong in this — grows up thinking, ‘I want to be a single mom.’ When you’re suddenly pregnant and no one is standing by your side, even if you’re in your 30s, it’s a hard conversation. I’m a traditional girl, and I believe in marriage, and I just always thought that’s the way I’d be doing this. For a moment, it was hard for me to accept that this was the way I was going to have a family.”
The situation was also difficult for Gisele Bundchen, who had just begun dating Tom Brady when she found out about the pregnancy. “It was definitely a surprise for both of us. In the beginning, you’re living this romantic fantasy; you’re thinking, ‘This can’t be true; it’s so good!’ And then, Whoops—wake-up call! We were dating for two and a half months when he found out, and it was a very challenging situation. Obviously, in the beginning, it’s not the ideal thing,” she explained.
However, loving Brady’s son was never a challenge for the model. “He’s a little angel—the sweetest, most cuddly, loving baby,” Bundchen said. “I feel blessed to have him in my life. I understand that he has a mom, and I respect that, but to me, it’s not like because somebody else delivered him, that’s not my child. I feel it is, 100 percent. I want him to have a great relationship with his mom because that’s important, but I love him the same way as if he were mine. I already feel like he’s my son, from the first day.”
In 2011, Bridget shared that she has nothing bad to say about Brady or Bundchen and that she knows her son is in capable hands. “I never made a comment about Gisele or Tom publicly,” she said. “I have a relationship with these people on a daily basis. I’m raising a child, and it’s public. My son has two loving parents and an extended family, whether it’s cousins or stepmothers, or boyfriends. My son is surrounded by love.”
Speaking to Howard Stern in 2020, Brady spoke out on his personal experience through the surprise pregnancy. The quarterback said:
“It was an interesting time because we found out after that my ex-girlfriend was pregnant with my oldest son. We were forced into this very important thing in our lives at a new part of our relationship. In a lot of ways, I found out a lot about Gisele through this experience, and she found out a lot about me dealing with a situation that was not a very easy one. … It was hard for my wife and for my son’s mom because she didn’t envision that either.”
Today, the three parents are still working together to raise Jack and make sure all of the children stay happy. “Nothing has changed as far as Bridget and Tom co-parenting. It’s still going well,” a source told Us Weekly in 2021. They also said that Bundchen and Bridget were on “good terms” at the time. The source added, “Bridget’s someone who is friendly and easygoing and is known to be cordial with Tom and supportive of his career.”
