Supermodel Gisele Bündchen recently spoke to CBS’ correspondent Lee Cowan, whom she invited to her home in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.
During the interview, Bündchen opened up about life in the spotlight, the challenges of being a superstar, and the toll it took on her mental and physical health. She also explained her current lifestyle and the changes she’s made.
Life in Costa Rica
During the interview, Gisele Bündchen described Santa Teresa as her “home away from home.”
She also stated that this was the perfect place for her to find herself and find peace again. Living in this small Costa Rican coastal town allowed her to recharge and renew.
“I’m in a different place in my life. 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,” she commented.
Here, she is seen relaxed, living far away from the cameras and frenzy, and most importantly, being her true self.
The Spotlight
“Everybody looked at me from the outside and thought I had it all, right?” Bündchen said.
However, that was far from the truth, as Gisele Bündchen herself explained to the journalist.
“You know, drinking mocha frappuccinos for breakfast with three cigarettes; drinking a bottle of wine at night to calm down from all the coffee I was drinking. Not sleeping and traveling and working. Like, I basically burned out my adrenal glands, and my nervous system couldn’t take it anymore,” she added.
This, of course, took a toll on her mental health. Anxiety became part of Gisele’s life and overwhelmed her.
“You know, I was in tunnels; I couldn’t breathe. And then, I started being in studios, and I felt, like, suffocated. I lived on the 9th floor, and I had to go up the stairs because I was afraid I would be stuck on the elevator, and I’d be hyperventilating. Because you know, when you can’t breathe even when the windows are open, you feel like, ‘I don’t want to live like this,’” Bündchen mentioned during the interview.
The celebrity also spoke about her marriage and divorce to NFL icon Tom Brady. After 16 years of marriage, she described their separation as “painful.”
Choosing the Real Gisele
After some major changes, the supermodel said she now feels like she can be herself. During her career, she had to come up with a character to face the modeling world, but now that’s over, she finally feels free.
She’s now a “wellness ambassador” for North Carolina’s Gaia Herbs, which she believes is more of a lifestyle rather than a brand.
“I just think now I’m allowing myself to come out as Gisele versus as ‘her.’ I don’t have to play a character. I can be me. And that’s liberating.”
