Gisele Bündchen wanted to celebrate the fathers in her life this Father’s Day. The internet noticed the one name she left off the list. The Florida-based supermodel, 45, took to Instagram on Sunday from her Surfside home to honor her husband Joaquim Valente and her late father, Valdir, in a gushing tribute packed with sweet family photos.
“Happy Father’s Day,” she wrote to Valente, the jiu-jitsu instructor she married in December. “Thank you for leading by example, and for the values you embody, love, humility, integrity, discipline, kindness and consistency. You are an incredible role model.“
There was just one problem, at least in the eyes of her followers. Nowhere in the post was there any mention of Tom Brady, her ex-husband of 13 years and the father of two of the three children featured in those very photos.
Fans Immediately Took Sides Over The Glaring Snub
The omission landed like a lightning rod, and fans immediately picked sides. To one camp, leaving Brady out while prominently featuring their kids, Benjamin and Vivian, both 13, with their stepfather was a pointed jab that crossed a co-parenting line. “Don’t forget the father of your other kids,” read the most-liked comment on the post, racking up thousands of likes. “He helped raise them too.” Another piled on: “How do you post this and not mention your own kids’ father?” The criticism only intensified when fans recalled that Brady had publicly honored Gisele just weeks earlier on Mother’s Day, sharing throwback family photos and a warm tribute to the mother of his children.
The other camp wasn’t having any of it, and they came out swinging even harder. “They are divorced precisely because he didn’t raise them,” shot back one commenter in a reply that drew nearly as many likes as the original complaint. “It was his choice,” added another. Others questioned the entire premise of the outrage: “Why would she post her ex when she’s already married to another man?” one asked, while another pointed to the caption itself: “She said ‘happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there.‘ You’re coming here asking her to specifically name her ex? He’s not her dad.” More than a few summed up the mood bluntly, calling it “crazy” to tell a woman “who to post on her page and honor.“
Lost in the noise was the fact that the two have largely kept things cordial since their 2022 split, repeatedly emphasizing their children come first. But cordial doesn’t trend, and a glaring omission does. Neither Brady nor Bündchen has commented on the uproar, leaving fans to keep right on arguing over whether the supermodel threw quiet shade or simply posted a Father’s Day tribute exactly the way she wanted to.
