The supermodel mom-of-two opens up on her struggle with panic attacks at the height of her modelling career and thought about throwing herself out of her apartment block.
- Sep 24, 2023
AceShowbiz - Gisele Bundchen wanted to kill herself at the peak of her modelling career by leaping from the ninth storey of her apartment block. The supermodel, 43, who split from her NFL star husband Tom Brady, 46, in October 2022, added she also battled panic attacks at the time due to her hectic work schedule.
"You know, I was in tunnels. I couldn't breathe. And then I started being in studios, and I felt, like, suffocated," she told journalist Lee Cowan, 58, in an upcoming episode of "CBS News Sunday Morning", which will air on 24 September.
She said her suicidal thought came when she was living on the ninth floor of a building while working as a model and was having to take the stairs out of fear she'd get stuck in the elevator.
Gisele added, "I'd be hyperventilating… you know when you can't breathe even when the windows are open, you feel like, I don't want to live like this, you know what I mean?" When Lee then asked whether she had thought "about jumping" from the apartment block, Gisele replied, "Yeah. For, like, a second."
The Brazilian first told about her suicidal thoughts in 2018 ahead of the release of her memoir "Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life". She told People in an interview to promote the book, "I actually had the feeling of, 'If I just jump off my roof, this is going to end, and I never have to worry about this feeling of my world closing in.' "
The former Victoria's Secret model added she once felt like "everything in (her) life was going to kill (her)." She added in her autobiography, "The idea swept over me then, Maybe it will be easier if I just jump. It will be all over. I can get out of this."
"When I think back on that moment, and that 23-year-old girl, I want to cry. I want to tell her that everything will be all right, that she hasn't even begun to live her life. But in that moment, the only answer seemed to be to jump."
But Gisele stressed during her "CBS News Sunday Morning" chat she is now "in a different place." She added, "I'm able to choose more of what I want. I think before I was more surviving, and now I'm living, which is different."
Gisele, who was once the world's highest-paid model, earning around $17.5 million in one year, gave up the catwalk in 2015. She is now still in high demand and has been fronting campaigns for brands including Victoria's Secret, Iconic and Louis Vuitton.
Gisele also admits in the CBS chat she never "dreamed" of splitting from her husband Tom. Source say they decided to call it a day on their marriage after they had what sources have called an "epic fight" over the athlete's surprising decision to "un-retire" from football six months earlier.
Gisele - who has son Benjamin, 13, and daughter Vivian, 10, with Tom - said she was blindsided by the split as she had wanted a long relationship like her parents.
She said, "(Our split was) not what I dreamed of and what I hoped for. My parents have been married for 50 years, and I really wanted that to happen. But I think you have to accept, you know, sometimes that the way you are in your 20s, it's sometimes you grow together, sometimes you grow apart."
