Almost a year after her divorce from Tom Brady, supermodel Gisele Bundchen clarified that things haven’t been easy. When speaking about moving to Tampa Bay, then Miami, divorcing Tom, and caring for her aging parents, all over the span of a few years, she admitted that it’s been “tough.” “It’s been very tough on my family,” she told PEOPLE for an interview published on September 18. “It’s been a lot — in every area of my life. I feel like whenever it rains, it pours. With all the different twists and turns that life takes, all we can do is the best we can given what happens in our surroundings.”
For Gisele, that means self-care — not a surprising solution, given her near-perfect appearance throughout the years. The former Victoria’s Secret model, now 43, told the outlet she works out “every single day” and pays close attention to her nutrition. “I think if I didn’t have all the different tools that I have to support me during these times, it would’ve been very hard,” she admitted. “And I think we all can relate to that, because I think we all have gone through our roller coasters of life.”
Tellingly, the mom of two (plus stepmom to Tom’s eldest son Jack Brady, 16,) explains that being “present” is paramount to wellness. “Sometimes, we can get so disconnected from our bodies because we are running away from ourselves, so we just keep adding more things for us to do,” she said. “Give me anything to eat, give me anything to drink. You’re just in this mode. I feel like whenever you can bring yourself back into feeling your body and just being present, it’s great. You’re kind of in your body and you’re really present. You’re breathing, you’re connecting.”
And despite self-care sometimes getting a bad rap, Gisele says that’s unwarranted. Homing in on the “self,” she says, is essential. “No one is going to do it for you,” she shared. “The only person that’s going to make those choices is you. Because ultimately, you’re the first person who’s going to be impacted by it. But then, it’s your children, it’s your husband, it’s your family. You got to put the oxygen mask on you first.”
“It’s not a selfish thing,” she continued. “People have been teaching us that it’s selfish if you take care of you. How is that selfish? When you feel good, you’re a better mom, you’re a better friend, you’re calmer, you’re more patient, you’re more loving, you’re more grounded. So you can’t feel guilty about prioritizing yourself. Because that’s loving you and loving the people you love the most, which are going to be impacted by how well you are. Because if you’re sick, everyone’s hurts.”