Brady, Bundchen finalize divorce after 'growing apart'

Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen have finalized their divorce, they announced Friday, ending the 13-year marriage between two superstars who respectively reached the pinnacles of football and fashion.

Divorce documents were filed Friday in Glades County, Florida, a rural location far from the big-city limelight, according to court records. The divorce was made final the same day.

"The marriage of the parties is dissolved because the marriage is irretrievably broken, and each spouse is restored to the status of being single and unmarried," circuit judge Jack Lundy said in his order, noting that the settlement agreement will not be filed in court but they "are ordered to comply with the terms" of that document as well as a confidential parenting plan.

Brady and Bundchen posted statements Friday morning on Instagram, each saying they had "amicably" reached the decision.

"The decision to end a marriage is never easy but we have grown apart and while it is, of course, difficult to go through something like this, I feel blessed for the time we had together and only wish the best for Tom always," Bundchen wrote.

Both said their priorities lay with their children and asked for privacy.

"We arrived at this decision to end our marriage after much consideration," Brady wrote. "Doing so is, of course, painful and difficult, like it is for many people who go through the same thing every day around the world."

The divorce landed in the midst of Brady's 23rd NFL season, and amid his first three-game losing streak in 20 years, just months after the seven-time Super Bowl champion put an end to his short-lived retirement. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback announced his departure from the game in February, only to change his mind 40 days later.

"What more do you have to prove?" Bundchen told her husband on the sidelines after his last, record-shattering Super Bowl victory, as Brady himself recounted shortly after the win.

Despite Brady initially saying his retirement was a chance to focus his "time and energy on other things that require my attention", part of his motivation to come back was what he has referred to as "unfinished business" with the Buccaneers. The team failed to reach the Super Bowl last season in their effort to repeat as champions.

Bundchen told CBS This Morning in 2017 that she was concerned about her husband after he played through a concussion the previous year. Brady's then-team, the New England Patriots, and agent declined to respond to her comments at the time, and the NFL said there were no records he had suffered a head injury.

"I mean, we don't talk about it," Bundchen said during the interview. "But he does have concussions. I don't really think it's a healthy thing for anybody to go through."

She more recently contended that the characterization in reports that she was desperate for her husband to retire carried sexist overtones.

"Obviously, I have my concerns. This is a very violent sport, and I have my children and I would like him to be more present," the supermodel told Elle magazine in September. "I have definitely had those conversations with him over and over again. But ultimately, I feel that everybody has to make a decision that works for (them). He needs to follow his joy, too."

Xinhua