Gisele Bundchen has released a memoir called Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life. I remember hearing about it months ago, and thinking that it was probably going to be the Brazilian version of Goop, everything diets, holistic BS and and exercise. Turns out, she’s actually talking about some new information, like her struggles with panic attacks when she was a young model. She also confirms something that was widely reported a few years back: she got a boob job. Some highlights:
Post-breastfeeding, her boobs were smaller: “I was always praised for my body, and I felt like people had expectations from me that I couldn’t deliver,. I felt very vulnerable, because I can work out, I can eat healthy, but I can’t change the fact that both of my kids enjoyed the left boob more than the right. All I wanted was for them to be even and for people to stop commenting on it.”
Getting a breast augmentation in 2015: “When I woke up, I was like, ‘What have I done?’ I felt like I was living in a body I didn’t recognize. For the first year I wore [baggy] clothes because I felt uncomfortable.”
Tom supported her during that time: “He just said, ‘I love you no matter what’ and that I looked beautiful. This was definitely another lesson: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But I wish I would have learned that a different way.”
She began having panic attacks in 2003, when her profile began to blow up: After having her first panic attack during a bumpy flight on a small plane in 2003, she developed a fear of tunnels, elevators and other enclosed spaces. “I had a wonderful position in my career, I was very close to my family, and I always considered myself a positive person, so I was really beating myself up. Like, ‘Why should I be feeling this?’ I felt like I wasn’t allowed to feel bad. But I felt powerless. Your world becomes smaller and smaller, and you can’t breathe, which is the worst feeling I’ve ever had.”
She began to have panic attacks all the time: “I actually had the feeling of, ‘If I just jump off my roof, this is going to end, and I never have to worry about this feeling of my world closing in.’” After seeing a specialist, who prescribed Xanax, she decided she didn’t want to rely on medication. “The thought of being dependent on something felt, in my mind, even worse, because I was like, ‘What if I lose that [pill]? Then what? Am I going to die?’ The only thing I knew was, I needed help.”
First, let’s talk about panic attacks. I think I’ve written about this before, but in college, I had one awful summer and I began to have panic attacks. You really do feel like you’re going to die, your heart is racing and you can’t calm yourself at all. It’s awful. I was prescribed antidepressants too, and they didn’t really work and I stopped taking them after a few weeks. My situation just needed time and patience, but everybody is different. I respect her for talking about this, but I don’t entirely respect the fact that her panic-attack phase was the launch point for her to go on an extreme diet for life (which is what the book is about). She’s trying to make it sound like she “cured” her panic attacks by… eating more vegetables or something. That message SUCKS.
As for what she says about her boob job… we already knew. I find it interesting that she admits that, but doesn’t talk about her obvious face work at the same time.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, WENN.
We been knew, girl. People can stop pretending the rest of us don’t have eyes in our head. Nobody really cares at this point, anyway. We expect it from people in the industry. Albeit, this is probably the most relatable she’s come across in an interview. Makes me wonder if she’s changing her PR game a bit to soften her image.
By the way, for the women here, as somebody who worked at Victoria Secret for several years in school, it’s perfectly natural for one of your breasts to be slightly smaller/larger than the other. The vast majority of women have some size difference. It’s just a pain when it’s a full cup size because that makes bra fitting annoying.
Mine are lopsided like that, one is a C and the other DD. I get DD bras and wear a Double Scoop insert on the one side. No need for breast implants to fix this minor issue.
There’s a need if a woman makes that decision. Like you, I’m ok with my imperfections. However, I don’t fault women who are not.
I think most people are miffed about Bündchen because she always pretends to be healthy and it is all due to veggies and genetics and some yoga and meditation and NOW she admits she had massive problems and massive surgery while she should admit she has had massive surgeries over the years and probably more help than anybody would advise her to admit.
Too smug.
I also suspect that she is merely trying to get attention by coming out now. She is free to do so but I don’t approve of her strategies as a whole.
Was this when she wore a burqa (or niqab, I can’t remember) to sneak into the surgeon’s office unnoticed?
Yup, I was just replying to Kaiser on Twitter about this very thing! FULL burkah, only slitted for eyes (due to the face work as well). Don’t realize how, in the age of internet/phone cams, people forget there are photos SOMEWHERE. People have saved screenshots everywhere now. Just stop lying… esp. to yourself.
Operation burqa was the first thing I thought of too! Just be honest if you are going to attempt to talk about your plastic surgeries!
Maybe for her, changing her diet and feeling like that was something she had control over helped with her panic attacks? Just as anti depressants work for some, diet and lifestyle work for others. Everyone has their own method to coping. I don’t think that’s something that shouldn’t be respected.
Years ago, I was diagnosed with mild depression and anxiety. My psych said that she believed mine would have been moderate to severe, but for I was running on the regular and eating well. I still went on meds for a couple of years, but six years ago I stopped because I felt well/whole and wanted to start a family. For the last 6 years I haven’t needed to go back on meds. I eat well, sleep, regularly exercise and take B complex vitamins. Now this method isn’t for everyone of course, but there are people who can treat these conditions with a holistic lifestyle.
Completely agree. Everyone is different and different things help different people. I don’t have a problem with Gisele taking care of herself how she sees fit. What I take issue with is people who try to tell *other people* how to take care of themselves, full-stop. Like Scientology. Or my Great-Aunt. Ugh.
I have Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and a light case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, all along with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. For me, it took medication, therapy, and getting away from my mother (enter my reason for PTSD).
Finding the right medication was difficult, but I have rather severe depression so I knew I needed to stick it out. Not every drug works for every person. My brother does great on Zoloft, but I do terribly on it. I seem to do best on Prozac, which is rather old-school as far as antidepressants go these days.
It also takes time for whatever your medication of choice is to build up in your system. Taking one for a few weeks and expecting miracles so you stop is just making things worse, confusing your system even more. You have to stick it out and understand that it will take a bit of time to take effect.
I also HIGHLY recommend therapy. Therapy is probably the biggest single thing that has helped me, more than meds and living away from my mother put together. I cannot extol the virtues enough of having someone to talk through things with who is there to listen and not judge. Just like meds not every therapist is for every person. Meet several, ask questions about their philosophies, etcetera. Just see who you vibe with.
Standard disclaimer applies to all of this, of course: different methods work for different people. Some might only be helped by meds and not by therapy or vice versa – or by neither. I just wanted to put this out there. It’s not easy to seek help in any fashion, but it’s important for people to hear the truth of it sometimes, that it’s not perfect straight off. I wish someone had told me these things when I was young, so I thought I’d put it out there.
@terra ~ Very well put.
Thank you for sharing your story; I understand this as well.
I was diagnosed with mild depression last year. They said “mild”, I thought I was dying of despair and every single day was a struggle. I saw no future for myself – I actually did not care at all. So I feel deeply for those going through more aggressive types of depression.
I was on meds for 6 months and I was so scared of being weaned off them because I was actually feeling “balanced” and “happy”. 6 months later and I still experience some days when everything is dark, but I feel better about it and I don’t have a need to go back to the meds, although I will in a second if something changes. I manage to do very well when I’m following a diet and exercise regimen. My neighbour threatened my life yesterday, and I went through every single emotion, and was feeling so vulnerable and scared but I decided to stick it out and go to my work out and as soon as I left I felt empowered and energised to face her. Something about seeing my body in motion, the strength I am capable of, keeps my brain’s chemistry balanced and my spirit strong.
Edit to add: I am still in therapy. My therapist gives me a secure place for me to work through everything I need to w/o being judged.
I have been on every anti depressant and in therapy half my life. Right now, drug free and just ending counseling. I also exercise and take care of myself. For me, NOTHING takes my anxiety and depression away. It’s now just a matter of what methods help me to feel somewhat better each day. Sometimes all you can hope for is improvement not cure. Like you said, methods may vary.
@Gigi La Moore
Oh, absolutely there’s no cure. Even with everything I do – medication, therapy, lifestyle changes, cutting off toxic relationship changes, diet, making sure I stay hydrated, exercise – I’m nowhere near cured. I have bad days, certainly.
But my panic attacks are a fraction of what they once were and I think about killing myself rarely as opposed to constantly. Expecting a “cure” is unreasonable. Even people without mental illness have off days and feel sad sometimes.
That’s what I wanted in the depths of my depression – to feel something other than misery all the time. I’m fine with misery sometimes as long as I get joy at other moments, you know?
Honestly, at this point I will take any scrap of people admitting the work they have done and even the tiniest chink in the ‘this is natural and you’re just shit/i drink a lot of water’’ narrative that we get from celebs/models/Instagram filters.
Also – I struggled with some serious anxiety (albeit not depression), but I couldn’t get my head around the meds, which I felt had a negative impact on my ability to do my work (which involves numbers and also needing to be ‘on’ a lot). I honestly feel like changing my diet, sleep and exercise have helped me get over the hump where it’s not an every day thing any more. To each their own.
YES … All of this ^ ^ ^ especially diet and exercise. Xanax also affected my work and I started to get very worried about dependency.
YES completely agree, although it depends how bad it is I guess, but I’m going through it right now where I have regular anxiety and panic attacks and reading through here I feel like I’m lucky that I’ve been surrounded by GPs and therapists that don’t try to push pills on me.
I really can’t stand her. Sorry not sorry but she’s so pretentious. I want to say she’s relatable because my boobs also shrunk after breastfeeding but she’s just not lol
I had my first panic attack in years because my husband’s work property had an active shooter on it (he’s okay, thank goodness but was scary nonetheless) and it really does feel like you’re dying. It’s not something I wish on anybody
So, so shocked.
My daughter had the such horrible anxiety/panic attacks in 6-8th grade. Missed tons of school, was actually misdiagnosed w/bipolar at one point because when she had panic attacks she would hit, throw things, scream, and she too would often say she wanted to die because she couldn’t take the emotional pain of it all. Now a senior in high school, she’s on meds & gets therapy. Her anxiety has reduced greatly but would still rear it’s ugly head sometimes. But the past 6 months we’ve cut out most processed food, and the last couple months she’s gone mostly gluten free, and she has had no anxiety as of late. Is it the new way of eating? Maybe.
I had my first panic attack attack at age 20 right out of the blue and it set off a year of uncontrollable anxiety. I had no idea how to deal with it, so I tried to suck it up and just get over it. Hindsight, I would’ve done things differently. But I had no idea what was happening to me and people didn’t talk about this. That’s why I always support anyone talking about mental illness.
The only good thing to come out of that day was my cat jumping all over me while I shook in panic on the bathroom floor because he thought it was a game. This is funny to me now.
As someone who does suffer from panic attacks and works in the film industry, I do find that my diet helps me (the obvious things) sugar, caffeine, pastries, toasted cheese sandwiches… all that yummy, sugary, carbo loaded guff they feed you on a film set. If I can keep my blood sugar levels stable, my anxious brain doesn’t think a sugar rush = a panic attack. But, I’m NOT a supermodel and I totally agree hers and Tom’s bizarre diets have me fascinated. P.S. as someone who works in Wardrobe and gets up and close and personal to a lot of people, you can safely assume that almost 95% of people you see have had work done. Go easy on yourselves 🙂
Agree Anon. I do think sometimes your body can go out of whack if you aren’t looking after yourself and I also believe your gut biome and foods can play a role in regulating mood. Otherwise, I think she’s full of it. She and DH.
I feel that I can speak for a lot of people here on plant earth when I say “Who cares?”
I see you left out the part where she said she had suicidal thoughts…
If you read the interview in full, she comes off as incredibly vapid and pretentious. I think she published this “memoir” to try to be more relatable, but it has the opposite effect for me. I just can’t relate to having an existential crisis because my boobs are lopsided from breastfeeding, for chrissakes. I get it that this is the industry she’s in, but still, so shallow.
She had boob job way before having kids or even meeting Brady. Also, a nose job.
https://plasticsurgerymagz.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Gisele-Bundchen-Plastic-Surgery-Nose-Job.jpg
Exactly.
And her eyelid surgery – which she doesn’t mention and also part of the Burqua trip 😏😶 – is far more obvious than the boob job.
What on earth. How can those two be the same person.
I actually find her more striking in the “before” photo.
Yep. she looks more model like in the first one.
Yup, these were her second implants.
That’s the same nose. She had big boobs when she was a teenager.
somebody got to Gisele and convinced her to let her guard down so she’d seem more likeable. I think she’d been sent the message for so long that she was superior to most women for her looks so she kept a wall up in order to maintain that when saying things like labor pains didn’t hurt for her and pregnant women only gain weight because they treat their bodies like garbage disposals. why would women want your advice or be curious about your life when you seem so mean? her saying she didn’t feel the had the right to be scared or upset because life was going so well is a very relatable feeling women have-being told we don’t have the right to have feelings. at times I thought her complaining about her body seemed so superficial but that was her career-her body.
As an MD, there is NO SHAME in taking anti-anxiety pills! None! Also as far as the medication not working, some drugs such as SSRI’s take atleast a month before they begin working. So please don’t stop prematurely and please don’t give up! End the stigma! Get the help you need!
I’m 1 one month post-op from breast surgery and the moment I woke up my first thought was “what have I done?” Now I couldn’t be happier. The best part is that no one, apart from those I told, can tell I got an augmentation. Paying for natural shaped implants was the best thing I could’ve done.
I’m 3 months post op and the moment I woke up I was like, “why didn’t I do this a decade ago?” It felt like this weight and anxiety I’d been carrying around just LIFTED. I wanted to stay the same size, and my surgeon did a beautiful job of giving me the breasts I feel like I should have been born with. I feel MORE like myself now than before. It’s wild.
Such a weird mixed message. Like, don’t get implants but she’s keeping them? The same unfair standard imposed on women, which supposedly caused her anxiety, is something she is giving into by getting said implants.
Did she just say “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” in relation to developing a different sized breasts after breastfeeding? Really? A multi-millionaire that already had one breast augmentation and had the resources at her disposal to have any sort of cosmetic work done as desired? Really?
Or her new face work now because that face is new.
She is lying.
She had a boob job early in her career to become “the boobs from Brazil”. (Check out her old photos before fame). There are even videos of her eating pizza. The horror!!! Lol.
She is also lying about her panic attack issue. I think it is bc she wants to portray a 100% natural life. Thus UPSETS me to no end. It is irresponsible. She is implying that everyone can just DECIDE to not need medication. She needed XANAX! That is not a small problem. She is kidding herself thinking she can eat right and be fine. She will not be fine. I bet her husband was an influence in that. Such a dangerous message to send to people who need MEDICATION…so so dangerous.
I like her but SHE IS WRONG.
She had big boobs when she was a teenager. And she talked about her panic attack before. She is not wrong. You are wrong.
@Kaiser – just a little medical PSA 🙂
Giselle was prescribed a benzodiazepine, not an antidepressant. Benzodiazepines are prescribed for the treatment of acute panic attacks, because they can work almost instantly. Most antidepressants take 4-6 weeks to take effect (we don’t entirely know why, but the current theory is something to do with changing the number/sensitivity of different types of receptors in your brain). That doesn’t even take into consideration dose titration/increase and the fact that some people need to try several different meds before finding one that works.
I don’t in any way mean to discount your experience of your own body, but just in general terms/for other people I wanted to point out that there are other factors that might be in play if they’re new to antidepressants and have only been on them a couple weeks without result 🙂
As always, something to talk about with your medical provider.
I think the choice to take pills or not to take pills should be up to the individual and their doctor. I don’t think anyone should judge anyone else for taking pills or not. We should all be able to manage our own difficult issues our own way without judgment.