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Gisele Bündchen is Vogue's July cover star, but the focus of her cover story isn't on her infamous modeling career, or even on her blissful marriage to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Instead, Gisele talks about her "New Age" lifestyle and her commitment to saving the planet— including her environmental work in her Brazilian hometown, and humanitarian efforts in Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. At fifteen, we learn, she was reading the teachings of Zen buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. The fashion industry "has the means" to change the world, she says. "We just have to want to do it." Below are five additional things you probably didn't know about Gisele Bündchen:
1. Bündchen was discovered at McDonald’s.
Growing up in Horizontina, a small town in the countryside of Rio Grande do Sul, Bündchen was a straight-A student with aspirations of becoming a professional volleyball player. In fact, her skills on the court were so strong, she might have actually become one—had someone not organized a modeling course for local girls. Bündchen only signed up because the free trip to São Paulo promised at the end of the class was so appealing. She was 13 and had never been to a big city, let alone São Paulo, which was a 25-hour bus ride away. It was there, during her first meal at the fast-food chain, that a modeling agent picked her out of the 55 other uniformed girls. At that point, “I’d never seen fashion magazines,” Bündchen said.
2. Bündchen wasn’t interested in Tom Brady at first.
It was December 2005, at a New England Patriots game, and the supermodel had just ended her relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio when she was shown a photo of the Patriots quarterback, who was dating Bridget Moynahan at the time. Bündchen’s initial take was published in the Boston Herald: “Tom Brady, definitely not too shabby. He’s cute, but if he has a girlfriend, he’s gay to me. There are too many men in the world to go after a man who has a woman. Life is too short.” On a Boston radio program, Brady heard her review. “Oh, jeez, that’s a little harsh,” Brady said. At the end of 2006, Bündchen met a newly single Brady through a mutual friend. “I knew right away—the first time I saw him,” Bündchen has said. “[He] smiled and I was like, That is the most beautiful, charismatic smile I’ve ever seen!” Let’s just say it was love at first (actual) sight.
3. Bündchen's astrological sign is Cancer.“I’m a Cancer,” she tells Vogue of her astrological sign and what it means to her, and how it keeps her grounded in the fashion industry. "The little crab. Loves the home, her sanctuary, all the cozy things. So I was a fish out of water in fashion. I was always like, Let me go to the job and go home."
4. Bündchen created her natural skin-care line, Sejaa, to help teens with low self-esteem.
“When I was a teenager, I had pimples—oh, God, every time someone looked at my face I thought they were looking at my pimples. I put mud on my face to dry them out, and it worked,” Bündchen told Vogue in 2010. “I wanted to teach girls to love themselves and take care of their bodies. What is the first thing you see every morning? Your face! What do you put every day on your face? Cream! I have made the simplest, purest cream—an everyday cream—but it comes with an affirmation.” Lesson learned.
5. Bündchen has meditated every day since she was in her 20s.Bündchen is committed to a holistic lifestyle, which she embraces in numerous ways, including through meditation. She tells Vogue's Rob Haskell that started practicing daily meditation in her 20s, and has even helped implement a meditation program at her children's school. She also practices yoga and maintains a famously strict diet.
Watch Gisele Bündchen Play Guitar, Sing Bruno Mars and Attempt a Boston Accent: