Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen are very rich. People are saying that Tom’s net worth is probably around $250 million, but I bet it’s much higher than that. He’s not only rich from his actual NFL career, but from his mega-endorsement deals, plus all of his side-businesses. And then there’s Gisele Bundchen, who was one of the highest-paid models in the world for many years. Gisle also has side-businesses and lucrative endorsement deals. My point is that Tom and Gisele are rich and their kids are growing up to be rich kids. Tom recently spoke about how the hardest part about parenting is being so rich.
Tom Brady thinks his and Gisele Bündchen’s wealth is the “hardest thing” about raising their children.
“We have people that clean for us. We have people that make our food. We have people that drive us to the airport if we need that. … We get off a plane and there’s people waiting there for us and we get ushered in,” the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback said on a recent episode of Spotify’s “Drive” podcast. “That’s my kids’ reality, which is the hard part to say, ‘Guys, this is not the way reality really is. … What can we do about that?’”
Brady, who reportedly has a net worth of $250 million, shares son Benjamin, 12, and daughter Vivian, 9, with Bündchen. He also co-parents son John “Jack,” 14, with ex Bridget Moynahan.
The NFL star, 44, said he and the Brazilian supermodel, 41, try to make their kids relatable by creating “experiences that are more along the lines of what most kids go through,” but he admitted at the end of the day, his children will “still have experiences that a lot of kids never do have.”
Brady said his and Bündchen’s humble beginnings have made them understand and appreciate their privilege. “My wife grew up in rural Brazil, the farthest state south, Rio Grande do Sul, very small kind of farming town, very simple girl,” he explained. “There are two bedrooms in their house — one for their parents and one for her and her five sisters.
“I grew up in, I would say, a middle-class family in California. My dad worked his ass off for our family,” he continued. “My mom stayed at home [and] took care of us kids, and I saw my mom work every day to make food for us at night and wash our clothes.”
The Brady designer admitted that he has “screwed up a lot of things,” which he called “the reality of being a parent,” but he said he hopes that his kids realize the luxuries they experience are just treats.
On one side, cry me a river. On the other side, I understand what he’s saying and it’s a common complaint/observation from celebrities and rich people. Many of those celebrities grew up poor or middle-class and then they got money and they want to give their kids everything they never had in their childhoods, but it comes at a cost. Those kids don’t know the value of money, or the kids are spoiled beyond belief or the kids grow up with a completely skewed frame of reference for the world and how things work. Still, champagne problems. I bet Tom’s son Jack Moynahan has a better sense of money though – Jack mainly lives in New York with his mom, who is very much a jobbing actress.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instagram, Backgrid.
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- 118112, Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen at the Met Gala in NYC. New York, New York – Monday May 5, 2014. Photograph: © TS, PacificCoastNews. Los Angeles Office: +1 310.822.0419 London Office: +44 208.090.4079 sales@pacificc,Image: 530740918, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS, DIRECT SALES ONLY UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE IN CAPTION – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: TS, PacificCoastNews / Avalon
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- 157441, Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen at National Geographic’s Years Of Living Dangerously Season 2 world Premiere American Museum of Natural History. New York, NY – September 21, 2016. Photograph: © Darla Khazei, PacificCoastNews. Los Angeles Office (PCN): +1 310.822.0419 UK Office (Photoshot): +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 sales@pacificcoastnews.com FEE MUST BE AGREED PRIOR TO USAGE,Image: 532663568, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS, DIRECT SALES ONLY UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE IN CAPTION – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: Darla Khazei, PacificCoastNews / Avalon
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- BEVERLY HILLS, LOS ANGELES, CA, USA – FEBRUARY 21: Football quarterback Tom Brady and wife/model Gisele Bundchen arrive at the 2019 Hollywood For Science Gala held at a Private Estate on February 21, 2019 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States. (Photo by Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency),Image: 535404319, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289 – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency / Xavier Collin / Avalon
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- Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen at arrivals for Camp: Notes on Fashion Met Gala Costume Institute Annual Benefit – Part 3, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY May 6, 2019. Photo By: Kristin Callahan/
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- Cambridge, MA – Tom Brady plays football with his sons John and Benjamin at the Harvard University Best Buddies event. Tom caught a pass for a touchdown from fellow Patriot Julian Edelman. Michael Chiklis played football too. Tom was very affectionate with his kids on the field. Brady was once again the star of the weekend, raising a lot of money for Best Buddies during his downtime with a new football season just around the corner. Pictured: Tom Brady BACKGRID USA 31 MAY 2019 BYLINE MUST READ: BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Cambridge, MA – Tom Brady plays football with his sons John and Benjamin at the Harvard University Best Buddies event. Tom caught a pass for a touchdown from fellow Patriot Julian Edelman. Michael Chiklis played football too. Tom was very affectionate with his kids on the field. Brady was once again the star of the weekend, raising a lot of money for Best Buddies during his downtime with a new football season just around the corner. Pictured: Tom Brady BACKGRID USA 31 MAY 2019 BYLINE MUST READ: BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
Quite a few very rich celebs or business people talk about how to raise your children while having extreme wealth and it doesn’t seem difficult. They have clothing budgets and allowances for chores. What is difficult is when you want to live in extreme wealth and surround yourself with likeminded people.
After GB said he hasn’t really been a present father it sounds like Tom swoops on and showers them in whatever before he leaves again.
So its obviously a very tone deaf comment on its face but once you actually listen to what he’s saying, it makes more sense. he’s acknowledging his wealth and privilege and is concerned that because his kids only know that wealth and privilege, it will give them a skewed sense of reality.
I’m not Tom Brady rich, lol, but I guess my response would be….dial back some of that privilege? The kids are certainly old enough to be in charge of cleaning their own bathrooms, for example. But I guess there’s only so much of that you can do sometimes. They’re always going to get ushered through the airport, they’re going to get special treatment at restaurants, when shopping, etc.
It does seem like there are simple ways to encourage your kids to see and appreciate their privilege while also still learning to live somewhat “normally.” Seriously, get them to clean their own bathrooms, as you say — and do they really need someone to cook all their meals? It’s a lovely perk if you can afford it, but plenty of people work very demanding full-time jobs and still make dinner every night, with the help of their teenagers.
Becks
I knew a store manager that traveled to very nice stores in a very wealthy location to assess. She would tell satirizes of which celebs demanded special attention like closing the store curtains. Which celebs accepted special attention, but never asked. And which celebs asked to never be treated special because they were with their family and didn’t want them exposed to that.
Her favorites were Alice cooper and Jolie.
Some things like the airport can’t be stopped. But most can.
I highly doubt Jolie has never asked or accepted special privileges. You can just look at pap videos of her being let in and out of special entrances and empty stores.
But any wealthy celebrity can try their best to give their kids a somewhat normal experience without constantly throwing luxury perks at them.
@Jess- Wiglet Watcher never said Jolie avoided accepting the associated privilege. You make that conflation. Go back and re-read.
Michelle Obama talked about this. When they moved to the White House, she instructed the staff there that their daughters were to make their own beds every day. Probably more, too, but that detail really stuck out for me.
I hate saying this, but how difficult is it to live a more modest life and parent your child on the importance of savings, finance, helping others, etc? I have a child, and this topic is the least of my concerns in terms of “how do I teach them this difficult concept.” I am more worried about death, sex,and social media presence, lol lol.
But then he would have to live a day without all his “perks”!
It’s hard to discount peer affects. His kids probably go to private schools for logistical reasons if nothing else. So they’re surrounded by rich kids. And maybe you want to set up rules like no private planes or whatever, but what are you going to do when your kid gets invited to her best friend’s ski house and they’re taking their jet? Do you hold the line and tell them no?
It’s also hard to justify making your kid spend hours on housework when they have demanding school and extra curricular schedules and you don’t spend that time on housework yourself.
My guess is that Tom doesn’t really do the majority of the parenting in their family and Gisele makes most of the decisions about those aspects — one could hope she’d want to build in some real world experiences for their kids, but I don’t think we can know with Tom being the one relating how they live. At least he’s conscious of the problem.
Agreed. The headline makes him sound like Gwyneth Paltrow’s “working twice as hard” or BJ Novak’s Harvard curse, but the substance is quite different. I get what he’s saying.
It’s also hard to teach your child certain values if you and your wife are used to living a certain way. They will spot be the hypocrisy right away. I think being charitable and allowing the kids to understand their privilege by helping those who are in need might be a better lesson. Have them help build a house, plant crops, volunteer in shelters, but I guess the most important thing is to model the behavior you wish to see and set the example.
I will always reply to people the stories I’ve read about Warren Buffett. From what I’ve read, he didn’t make things easier for his kids. His children had privileges others didn’t have. He didn’t financially support them forever and taught them a work ethic.
Being really rich gives a parent to teach their child well. Tom & Giselle’s hands are not tied behind their backs. They absolutely have the opportunity to tell their kids, NO. You need to learn these things to function in this world. I don’t know if this is Page Six being Page Six. Brady/Giselle might annoy for other reasons. Cannot believe I might be defending them..both T & G seem to have a work ethic…if we were talking about the Cambridges, different story.
The other day, a customer, who is moderately wealthy was talking about their high school son. Saying, why should he take job a making $15-20 and hour when he could be studying.
My husband responding: Well, unless you want him to be a freeloader..he should be working. You’ve talked about how hard you had to work for what you have. He needs to understant/appreciate work involved in that.
If I could afford to let my child study and get a good education without her having to have a job, then I would. And who tf is paying a HS student 20/hr?!
Going to school, studying, and getting good grades still teaches and shows children and teens work ethic.
My daughter I do volunteer work regularly as well, which shows work ethic, team work, responsibility, timeliness as well as a list of other things. She has chores and an allowance that she is learning to budget.
If my daughter wants to focus on school, hobbies, and volunteering I am all for it. If she wants a part time job, great, but it shouldn’t be interfering with school.
working =/= work ethic.
I should have provided a bit more context. The father was complaining about his son, more or less, doing nothing this summer except for video games and hanging with friends and him(Dad) being p#ssed about it. As an aside, we know the history of the father, he did not grow up with money – he worked for what he has. He is a medical professional with a unique degree. The son is not taking any kind of classes over the summer. So, we were a bit confused how it would interfere with studying and how taking any job that paid $15/20 an hour would be a problem.
Yes, not just in my area, there are places paying teenagers $15-20/hr. When he said that (I knew of few places-landscaping, a couple of golf courses & what might be considered grunt construction jobs).
We are all different. My husband and I both started working in our early teens. Our daughter did volunteer work, was involved in sports/music extracurriculars and had got a job when she was 14. If she wanted things outside of things she needed(though I cheated on that rule a bit), she had to pay for them herself. She graduated from high school with high honors and other things followed.
One of the things about having a part time job during the high school years is learning about dealing with the general public. Not always easy & friendly. Considering Tom & Gisele’s history, their kids will have to work. The hardest part about being really rich and raising kids might be wondering if their friends like them for who they are and not who their parents are.
Love that you’re teaching your daughter to budget. Lots of parents don’t. We had a system of 2 envelopes (savings & spending) until she was sixteen. After the savings envelope was pretty large she wanted her own official bank account.
I shouldn’t judge because I’m not a parent, but I see plenty of kids of modest backgrounds who haven’t been taught the value of a dollar, or to work to earn what they want, or to take responsibility for household chores. So I don’t think this is exclusively a rich person’s dilemma. In any case, I wonder if Tom and Gisele involve their children in any charitable causes? That was something I admired about Diana, that she tried to expose her children to the fact that not everyone lived the way they did and that they had a responsibility to use their position to help others.
Hiring people to cook and clean for you is a choice, not requirement of wealth. Not saying I wouldn’t too if I had the money, but it is a choice to have their kids grow up seeing the hired help do all of the mundane scutwork in their house.
You’re exactly right. I know wealthy people who live modest lives, drive modest cars, live in regular houses. They choose to live this way. Tom could choose it too if he really wanted to.
If this was such a issue for Tom, he could easily make his children’s lives different. They could be forced to do chores, wash their own clothes, have them also volunteer for those less fortunate. Hell, T&G could share their wealth to those much more less fortunate as well. I don’t see them campaigning for the less fortunate, utilizing their position and wealth to showcase the disparities in the US, yet lone Brazil where a majority of G’s family and others suffer.
I hear the words coming out of him mouth and it’s garbage…….
Considering he “un-retired” after saying he wanted to Spend more time with his family, is telling. clearly and he doesn’t want to spend more time with his family and is leaving raising the children to Giselle. I have noticed that Bill and Melinda Gates’ children have all turned out very well – they’re well educated and you never hear anything untoward about them & they grew up the children of billionaires. I’m sorry but Tom Brady is a Putz. He has been one his entire life and my fear is that is what his children might learn from him.
Once a putz, always a putz….
And you can never convince me that he was “clean” from the deflated balls….
@Both Sides Now:
I’m with you 100%!
“Having kids is the hardest part about having an extravagant lifestyle”
So his problem is not being rich, but being “really rich”?
Hey, Tom, you can always lighten your load by throwing me a lazy million or two; I guarantee to put it to good use. I’m ok, but boy, I could help a lot of really needy people. Hello? Yoo-hoo, Tom? Tom? TO-O-O-O-M?!! 🦗 🦗 🦗
As has been said above its pretty obvious what to do. It’s not that hard. Kids should cook one night a week. Kids should at least clean their rooms, make beds, keep common areas tidy (some chores depending on age) etc. The problem is they will not be independent adults, fully formed and functional, if they can’t even turn the stove on. Also they should also get allowances and be taught to budget. And they need to learn about basics like grocery shopping. Plus the value of giving. I’d start there.
The last line of this write up is significant.
And just like that, I really hate that guy. Maybe it’s because I grew up poor, but seriously, must be sooooo hard to be able to afford good housing, good schools and tutors, holidays at least once a year and I bet his children don’t walk around all winter with one pair of boots that leak rain and snow like they’re sandals. Cry me a river. I get that the point that he’s trying to make is worrying that his children are growing up spoiled but he phrases it so incompetently and the passiveness coming off his sentences is an extra layer of annoyance. It’s like it’s somebody else’s job to raise his children and he isn’t involved in their upbringing at all. I guess he expects his wife to do that. Instead of hoping that his children realize luxury is a treat, maybe he should actually teach them that.
I’d like to hear him talk more about what he’s actually doing to keep his kids grounded. Because it sounds like he knows what the issue is, he knows where it stems from, but actually tackling it would mean that he personally (and Gisele) would have to change or give up some of the neat stuff that he has come to rely on and it does not sound like he’s willing to go that far.
Actions speak louder than words.
Wtf did I just read, lol. Does he realize he doesn’t have to use personal chefs and cleaning people all the time? This is such an asinine thing to say.
@JESSICA I agree! It looks like a “Do as I say, not as I do” situation. He doesn’t actually have to expose his kids to any of those things — but then, that would mean he’d have to participate in household and family tasks himself, so…
I grew up in poverty despite my Father working 70 hour weeks.
We kids all had chores in our own home, and we all had jobs by the time we were 9 or 10 years old. We shoveled sidewalks, ran errands for neighbors, paper routes, etc.
Their is nothing noble about poverty.
I have negative zero empathy for Tom Brady and his parenting while wealthy issues.
Btw, his son Jacks bio Mom is also a millionaire and I am certain child support must be in place.
None of his family is going to bed hungry.
Brady is about as clever as a box of hair.
And that was before the decade of concussions.
While I can understand what he is saying (yes, it is still annoying AF), he and his wife can certainly do whatever they want to dial back some of that privilege. Or they can get their children involved in charitable causes, that will expose them to so many others who DO NOT have the massive wealth and privilege they have – give them some perspective.
Look at Angelina Jolie (and even when she was still with Brad Pitt). They travel all over with their kids, getting them involved in the refugee work she has committed herself to, exposing them to all kinds of other experiences in this world. Yes, the Jolie/Pitt children come from a family of incredible privilege and wealth too, but from an outsider, it seems they are growing up very grounded. AND you could make your children work for something they want, just saying lol. That is a sure-fire way to teach them a strong work ethic. That is what my parents did, and we were well off financially.
Just my two cents.
Just when I think he can’t get any more unlikable… of course it never occurred to him to, I don’t know, clean his own f*cking house with his kids? Or make dinner together as a family? Or go through the airport as a regular person? He’s making the choice to raise his kids as super privileged, then wants sympathy for it. Please.
I get the sense that Mrs. Brady is NOT about cooking or any kind of homemaking and generally has the final word in all family matters, so hiring out the household management it is.
Right. Mrs. Brady makes those decisions. And if she elected to forgo all of the household help, she would then be doing all of it. Because TB is an absent parent. So I don’t blame her for wanting to focus on her career. This bullshit about raising their kids in privilege is pathetic either way. Admit that you like the perks of being super rich. Admit that you’re rich enough that your kids will never NOT be super rich. Admit that you have no intention of changing your lifestyle to give them an idea of their privilege. Problem solved.
I’m not rich but I know what he means. My family is middle/upper middle class while I grew up very poor. I struggle with how to give my daughter a good life without raising a daughter who is spoiled with no appreciation for money. I don’t want her to grow up with the same struggles that I did, but I also don’t want her to feel like we’ll just pay for everything and bail her out. Her college account is a secret for the moment while we wait to see what kind of person she is at 18.
He also said they build in ways to have their children appreciate how different their lives are but based on the comments here, the whole conversation was probably better suited for a therapist or close friend than the press.
Meanwhile, they’ve been moving around constantly, buying and selling real estate from Montana to Los Angeles to New York to Florida. Almost every one of these places went through massive renos to total tear-downs. They currently have 8 homes. In a day and age when millions of Americans are facing the sad reality that they’ll never own a home, don’t have enough money for groceries, medical needs or god forbid hospitalization, can’t afford college, work 3 or 4 P/T McJobs just to keep their head above water, well cry me a fucking river Tom. Rich, white people’s problems…SMH.
I watched the house they built in Brookline, MA, go up. It was unbelievable. They imported the bricks from a Belgian schoolhouse to build it from the ground up, and flew in Belgian stonemasons for the job. They put them all up in a swanky Boston hotel. GB built a yoga church on the property, literally a whole mission style temple-like structure. It was insane.
I hear this not even from wealthy ppl but if you grew up poor and are now middle class or higher how do you instill them the “values” you had when its no longer dependent on survival but rather an “optional lifeskill”. There is no easy way b/c the kids are growing up far different than the parents ever did and in turn the parent has never raised or been a middle class or higher child. And this is 110% a champagne problem.
The reality is TB kids are wealthy and if he makes good investments and savings his kids will also be wealthy. If that is the case (which it seems) then the only thing you can teach them is kindness towards those who aren’t wealthy and gratitude for what they have. How they go about doing that is how their parents treat others who aren’t wealthy (whether strangers or staff both in how they treat them and pay them) and volunteering even on a monthly basis. Teaching them lifeskills such as cleaning, making their bed, cooking, etc will come in handy when they go to college where they may come across kids from diff socioeconomic backgrounds. But otherwise those kids chances are only interact with only wealthy kids so those kids will learn by their parents example whether their parents want them to or not.
…Tom and his family could spend 3 weeks a year, ‘glamping’ in a poor community (anywhere on the globe), and do actual charity work – with and for impoverished people. I suspect that would offer them some valuable lessons about reality.
Great point Ornamental
“Very simple girl.”
They are champagne tears – but at least he admits that they (both) rely on lots of household staff. He’s a bit tone deaf. Here is a link to the yacht they were seen in earlier this summer near Portofino. Over a million euro per week. €1,000,000 per week.
https://www.moranyachts.com/luxury-yachts/madsummer-lurssen/?yacht-type=luxury-yachts-charter
Agree with all the comments here. How hard really IS it to live without some of these perks? Having your food cooked for you is pretty fabulous – I think if I were rich, food is one of the things I would fully go to town on, eating the best, balanced diet with quality ingredients and having it made for me *dreams* But surely it’s possible to still teach your children to cook, to shop for food, to tidy their rooms, and NOT buy them shit all the time? I got new things at birthdays and Christmas and that was about it. Rich kids can live by that too?
They’re insufferable.
You are concerned about your kids having a skewed sense reality because you have a cleaning person and chef?
Here’s a wild idea for a solution: Don’t have a cleaning person. Make your kids clean their own rooms and learn to cook. This is basic stuff.
I get that a professional athlete and elite model might need a chef for their diets that are basically part of their jobs, and trainers.
But GMAFB with this.
Although he’s not putting the message into very eloquent words, I think he is acknowledging his privilege which is more than many, many wealthy people or public celebrities ever do. There are other celebrities who spend an average family’s yearly grocery budget on something ridiculous like a Hermes baby seat and post it on social media like it’s something to be proud of. I think he is trying to say that he wishes his children could have a more down-to-earth POV of the world like him and Gisele grew up with.
There are other households of a lesser net worth than Tom/Gisele who also opt to pay for such things like cleaning and cooking staff, personal assistants, nannies, drivers, etc, etc. It’s part of being a busy high-level professional person that your time is better divided off to people who help you so you can focus on other tasks. If the staff are treated well and paid well for their time, I don’t see a problem with it.