“I fantasized about jumping out the window.” Gisele Bundchen’s secrets about starting a modeling career.

In an interview with the American CBS News Sunday Morning TV channel, Gisele Bündchen spoke frankly. The Brazilian-born model specifically addressed her painful divorce from ex-husband Tom Brady, as well as her rocky beginnings in the fashion industry.

She, who took her first steps in the modeling arena at the age of 16, remembers that time well and the stress she faced. Her first show at New York Fashion Week in 1996 had already sent her into a frenzy that would not stop. “I was in the tunnels. I could not breathe. And then I started working in the studios and I felt suffocated,” he told host Lee Cowan.

Claustrophobia and hyperventilation

Anxieties that will continue in his personal life. “I lived on the ninth floor of a building and had to take the stairs because I was afraid of getting stuck in the elevator and hyperventilating…” he continued. “You know when you can’t breathe, even with the windows open, you feel like you can’t live like that, you know what I mean?” And the journalist asks him. “Have you really thought about jumping?” Answer: “Yes. Just a second, because you say, really, I can’t…”

Gisele Bündchen began working at Elite Model Management, a modeling agency founded in 1971 by John Casablancas and Allen Kittle. The native of Horizontina, Brazil broke through in 1996, becoming the face of several brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino and Versace. At just 19, she joined the Victoria’s Secret Angels.

Growing up separately

After her marriage to Tom Brady in 2009, Gisele Bundchen had two children: 13-year-old Benjamin Rainey and 10-year-old Vivian Lake. Divorcing in 2022, the couple have lived separately ever since. “You have to accept that sometimes, given the way you’ve evolved, you either grow up together or apart… I mean, he’s the father of my children, so I always wish him the best,” she confided about her divorce back on CBS News Sunday Morning.