Tom Brady Says It Was a ‘Challenge’ Navigating His Divorce from Gisele Bündchen and His ‘Tough’ Final NFL Season

Tom Brady is opening up about navigating his final season in the NFL amid his divorce from Gisele Bündchen.

The seven-time Super Bowl champion spoke to MLFootball and shared insights into his 23rd and final season, which concluded in 2023. “My last season was tough,” Brady, 48, confessed.

“I was going through, I had a lot of, you know, a personal family issue,” he continued, seemingly in reference to his and Bündchen’s divorce in October 2022. “And it was a challenge, and it was very … it just took a lot out of me in terms of, you know, my ability to play.”

Brady permanently retired from the NFL in 2023, but he initially announced his retirement in February 2022. He returned for his final season to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a third season. He previously played for the New England Patriots for 20 seasons.

“I had 23 years of [football] so I didn’t think I was missing anything, retiring,” he told MLFootball  “I felt like I always had a goal — 45. I was 45 years old, I wanted to spend time with my kids, I felt like, okay, now it’s time for me to be at all my kids’ games. They’ve been to enough of their dad’s games.”

Brady and Bündchen, 45, share two children, Benjamin, 16 and Vivian, 13. Brady also has a son, Jack, 18, with ex Bridget Moynahan. Bündchen and her now-husband, Joaquim Valente, welcomed their first baby, a boy, together in February 2025.

Brady told MLFootball that he “tried to put as much as [he] could into” the final season.

“I felt like I owed to my teammates and coaches to give them everything I had,” he said. “I wish it could have been a little bit better at the end. But it was just a unique situation and a unique year for me.”

The superstar athlete’s remarks about his marriage follow his recent conversation with PEOPLE about prioritizing his kids and work.

“I don’t have much time for a personal life or much time for myself, but I love working and I love my kids,” Brady told PEOPLE at the Fanatics Studios launch party on Tuesday, Jan. 13.

“I like to be busy and try to really stay fulfilled in the things I’m doing, so I’m working on some really cool projects and I’m involved with some great teams of people that are doing some really positive things,” he continued.

While the retired football player is focused on his kids, he was spotted cozying up to influencer Alix Earle at a New Year’s Eve party on St. Barths. The two were spotted closely talking and being touchy at the event and videos quickly surfaced of their flirty encounter.

Prior to Earle, Brady was last romantically linked to supermodel Brooks Nader in 2024. A source told PEOPLE in July of that year that the pair were casually “hooking up.”