By Stephen M. Lepore For Dailymail.Com
00:51 23 Mar 2023, updated 01:16 23 Mar 2023
- In the interview, Bundchen says she was ‘blindsided’ by the news of FTX’s demise
- All of her financial advisers said that FTX was ‘a sound and great thing’
- She and estranged husband Tom Brady appeared in FTX’s 2022 Super Bowl ad
Gisele Bundchen spoke out for the first time since the failure of crypto exchange FTX – which she and estranged husband Tom Brady both invested in heavily and advertised – calling the news a shock.
Speaking to Vanity Fair for an interview to accompany a stunning cover shoot for the magazine’s April issue, Gisele, 42, described the speculation surrounding her split from Tom, 45, as ‘very hurtful’, while insisting that she has only ever ‘wanted all his dreams to come true’.
She also spoke about the investment she made in Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, as she and Brady are among hundreds of people who have lost potentially vast sums of money following the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange. She and Brady also appeared in the company’s Super Bowl commercial and were ambassadors for FTX.
The company filed for bankruptcy in November, and its founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is currently awaiting trial in New York City on fraud charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
In the interview, Bundchen says she was ‘blindsided’ and ‘no different than everyone else that trusted the hype around Bankman-Fried and FTX.
She declined to go into specifics but did offer that her advisors called FTX ‘a sound and great’ investment.
‘It’s just…terrible,’ she added. ‘I’m so sorry for all of us that this happened, and I just pray that justice gets made.’
Brady has more than 1.1 million common shares of FTX Trading, which at their peak were worth $93 million.
Bundchen, who divorced the NFL player in October, has more than 680,000 shares in the same entity, which were once valued at $57 million.
It is unclear how much the former couple lost, as it is not disclosed when they bought the shares – or, indeed, whether they purchased them or if they were gifted to them in return for their promotional work.
Robert Kraft, the billionaire New England Patriots owner, holds more than 110,000 Series B preferred shares in FTX Trading, the entity that owns its main crypto exchange.
His firm also owns 479,000 Class A common shares and 43,545 Series A preferred shares in West Realm Shires, the unit that owns the company’s US-based exchange.
Altogether, the roughly 630,000 shares would have been worth $53 million.
Other large institutional investors include Tiger Global Management, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Sequoia Capital.
Bundchen has finally opened up about her divorce from NFL star Tom Brady, describing the split as the ‘death of her dream’ – while blasting rumors that she gave the football pro an ultimatum forcing him to choose their relationship over his sporting career.
‘Listen, I have always cheered for him, and I would continue forever,’ she said. ‘If there’s one person I want to be the happiest in the world, it’s him, believe me. I want him to achieve and to conquer. I want all his dreams to come true. That’s what I want, really, from the bottom of my heart.’
While vehemently denying that her divorce had anything to do with Tom’s decision to U-turn on his retirement from the NFL, Gisele – who added that the split has been ‘like a death and a rebirth’ – said that the reason behind their split after 13 years of marriage was much more innocent, claiming that the pair simply ‘grew apart’ and realized that they wanted ‘different things’.
‘Sometimes you grow together; sometimes you grow apart,’ she said. ‘When I was 26 years old and he was 29 years old, we met, we wanted a family, we wanted things together.
‘As time goes by, we realize that we just wanted different things, and now we have a choice to make. That doesn’t mean you don’t love the person. It just means that in order for you to be authentic and truly live the life that you want to live, you have to have somebody who can meet you in the middle, right? It’s a dance. It’s a balance.’
The supermodel – whose fashion career has seen a massive resurgence since her split from Tom – also furiously shut down any suggestion that she is ‘against football’, saying that she ‘loved’ watching her former husband on the field.
She even spoke out to defend his lackluster final season with the Buccaneers, seemingly placing blame for their losses on Tom’s teammates, saying: ‘It’s a team sport and you can’t play alone. I think he did great under the circumstances. I mean, he had no offensive line.’
Tom and Gisele finalized their divorce on October 28 last year, calling time on their marriage with a gushing public announcement shared on social media.
