For whatever reason, becoming a stepmom has been the topic du jour this week amongst some A-list celebrities. The latest to join the discourse? Supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who shared rare comments about her relationship with stepson Jack, ex-husband Tom Brady’s son from his relationship with ex Bridget Moynahan, who is now 16.
Bundchen came into Jack’s life when he was just three months old, and, in a sit-down interview with Robin Roberts, she said “I got to experience how it is to feel, to be a mom before I was even a mom. To be a bonus mom. So, I got to experience how my heart could feel that love and just expand in ways I never thought were possible.” (She and Brady went on to have two more children, Benjamin and Vivian.) Of Jack, Bundchen said that “I raised him,” she said. “I love him.”
In the April 2023 issue of Vanity Fair, Bundchen expounded on her “great relationship” with Moynahan; she said that Moynahan’s co-parenting relationship with Brady post-split has helped shape Bundchen’s own co-parenting relationship with him after their divorce in 2022.
“Everything in life comes with work,” Bundchen said. “You have to go through the rollercoaster. You have moments where you get to the sticky points, and you’ve gotta overcome it.”
Bundchen admitted that their relationship wasn’t always easy, with their first conversation not occurring for over a year after Jack was born, calling the early days a “challenging situation.”
“Love conquers all,” Bundchen said of that time in her life. “My life became so much richer because I got to learn so much from that.” She added, “We’re not playing against each other. We are a team, and that’s beautiful. I look back and I have no regrets. I loved every bit of it.” She continued of Jack that “I love him so very much.”
Also in the headlines this week, recently engaged Dakota Johnson spilled on her relationship with reported fiancé (that’s fun to type!) Chris Martin’s two kids, Apple and Moses, who he shares with ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow, telling Bustle “I love those kids like my life depends on it. With all my heart.”
Interestingly, just a few hours later, Paltrow herself opened up about being a stepmom to husband Brad Falchuk’s kids while in conversation with former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas Nicole Avant as part of the Visionary Women’s International Women’s Day Summit. (Avant, like Paltrow, is also a stepmom to two kids.)
“It’s a bitch, right, guys?” Paltrow said, addressing the audience. “No, I actually—I really like to talk about this because it’s one of my biggest learnings as a human being. And my area of growth personally came from the initial difficult relationship I had with my step-kids, and now they’re like my kids.” She added, “I just learned to try to just keep shining like the sun and never keeping score.”
