Four years after their divorce, Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen's marriage is back on the market - this time in hardcover. On September 29, "Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness," a new biography of the legendary quarterback by author Lars Anderson, hits shelves. The excerpts released before the book reached stores landed exactly where it sells best: at home, not on the field.

The juiciest part concerns 2018. According to Anderson, after the New England Patriots lost the Super Bowl to the Philadelphia Eagles, Gisele handed Brady a handwritten letter. In it she wrote that she felt their marriage wasn't working and asked him to be home more. "She needed more from him - more of his time, more of his attention, more of his tenderness," Anderson writes. It wasn't just about hours, but about presence: when he was home, to really be home, not with his phone in hand or the game running in his head. She also needed help with the kids, and time for her own career.

American football, according to the book, was the wedge that slowly split the marriage. Bündchen reportedly began talking about retirement years before he actually retired. After the Patriots' Super Bowl win in 2017, she asked him whether that was the right moment to end his career. His answer, according to Anderson, was: "Sorry, babe. I'm having too much fun right now."

A former Brady teammate told the author that the model was "tired of living on Tom's schedule" and of standing "in his shadow during the season" - at a time when she herself was an international star. Gisele always supported his career. And the other way around? "There was obviously an imbalance," the teammate admitted.

An attempt at marriage counseling didn't work. On October 28, 2022, the two announced they were ending their 13-year marriage, with statements about a long-considered decision and the children as the priority. The irony is almost scripted: that same year Brady announced his retirement from the NFL, and just 40 days later came back for one more season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The retirement lasted 40 days. The marriage didn't survive the season that followed.

The book offers one more alleged turning point. According to one of Anderson's sources, Gisele told Brady: "We're not compatible" - according to their astrological charts. The author claims that was the definitive break. But this is an account from sources the author gathered, and neither Brady nor Bündchen has commented on it.

Their lives went separate ways long ago. Bündchen is with jiu-jitsu instructor Joaquim Valente, whom she married in December 2025. Their first child together was born in early 2025, and they haven't made his name public. It's her third child, after Benjamin and Vivian from her marriage to Brady. He, meanwhile, was linked in 2026 with influencer Alix Earle, but she avoids confirming a relationship, and he hasn't publicly shown a new partner.

Every household where someone works "just one more season" knows this story - on a construction site abroad, on a ship, in a factory on three shifts. The difference is that here everything is measured in Super Bowl rings and millions, but in the end it's still the same message: you're never home. How many trophies is one evening of really being home worth?