Gisele Loved Leo DiCaprio. Then She Stopped the 'Numbing'

Supermodel says she split with star in 2005 after some 'serious soul-searching'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 2, 2019 6:00 AM CST
Gisele Loved Leo DiCaprio. Then She Stopped the 'Numbing'
In this April 15, 2015, file photo, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen is seen at Sao Paulo Fashion Week in Sao Paulo, Brazil.   (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

Gisele Bundchen has been married to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for almost a decade, but before Brady, she had another famous love: Leonardo DiCaprio. They dated for five years, and it was serious—People notes Bundchen was the only girlfriend that DiCaprio ever brought to the Oscars. So why did the latter couple split? The Brazilian supermodel finally reveals all, and it's tied to what Porter magazine calls a "dark period" in her early 20s, when she was immersed in work all over the world and starting to have panic attacks, subsisting on cigarettes, wine, and coffee. She even considered suicide. But then she decided to make a change, cutting out sugar, booze, and caffeine, taking up yoga and meditation, and getting introspective—which is when she came to the conclusion that DiCaprio wasn't "the one."

"No longer numbing myself with smoking, drinking, and too much work, I was becoming more and more aware of things that I'd chosen not to look at," is how she explains it in her book Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life, which came out last fall. "Was I alone in wanting to do some serious soul-searching while he stayed the same? In the end, unfortunately, the answer was yes." As for Brady, whom she started dating in 2006, the year after she broke up with DiCaprio, he's been her rock (and father to their two kids, as well as a son from his previous relationship) ever since. "I love my husband—and most of all, I trust him," she writes in Lessons, per USA Today. "With Tom, who provides our family with a stable foundation, I'm able to create a home." (More Gisele Bundchen stories.)

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