Share on Facebook
Gisele Bundchen, a Brazilian fashion model, actress, and producer, is one among the richest women in the entertainment industry as well as one of the most powerful women in the world, as voted by Forbes. Here are 50 interesting facts about the sexy model and her journey to finding international success -
- Gisele Caroline Bündchen was born on July 20, 1980 to Vânia Nonnenmacher - a bank clerk pensioner, and Valdir Bündchen - a university teacher and writer, in Três de Maio, Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil.
- She is a sixth-generation Brazilian of German descent, as both her parents, though lived in Brazil, are of German descent. She was raised in Horizontina, a southern region in Brazil with a large population of German ancestry.
- Gisele has 5 sisters - Raquel, Graziela, Gabriela, Rafaela, and her fraternal twin Patrícia, her junior by five minutes. Her sisters - Patricia is her manager in Brazil, Rafaela is her social networking manager, Gabriela is her lawyer and Graziela is her accounts manager. Raquel is a federal judge in Brazil.
- In the year 1993, Gisele along with her sisters – Patricia and Gabriela, joined a modeling course on her mother’s insistence. Before that, she was only interested in becoming a professional volleyball player and had even considered becoming a member for Brazilian team, Sogipa. She used to call herself "Ana Mozur" (a great Brazilian volleyball player).
- Gisele was discovered at the age of jus 14, by the Elite modeling agency at a shopping mall in São Paulo the very next year and was selected for a national contest, Elite Look of the Year. She came in as a runner, losing to Claudia Menezes from Bahia. She then moved to São Paulo to launch her modeling career.
- Her first New York City break was at the Fashion Week in the year 1996. She was the first in a wave of Brazilian models to find international success.
- She auctioned for more than 42 shows in London in 1997. She was rejected in many modeling jobs at the start with the reason that “her nose was too big.”
- Her modeling in the Alexander McQueen's spring 1998 "rain" ready-to-wear show, was the major turning point in her career.
- For her ability to walk in towering heels, even on a slippery runway, got her the title - "the Body" from McQueen, which boosted her bookings in no time.
- Gisele is a the pioneer of a different style of cat walk - "horse walk," in which the model keeps her knees up high and kicks her feet out in front to create a stomping movement.
- She cites Lauren Hutton and Verushka as her modeling icons.
- Her native language is Portuguese, but she is also fluent in Spanish, English and Italian. She even studied German in her school.
- In the year 1998, she was in a relationship with the Polo player – Rico Mansur, which didn’t last long.
- Her first Vogue cover was out in the year 1998, after which she became the most in-demand cover girl with 10 covers in less than four years.
- Since then, Gisele has been on the covers of many top fashion magazines like the W, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Allure, international editions of Vogue, broader publications like TIME, Vanity Fair, Forbes, Newsweek, and Veja, as well as style and lifestyle publications such as i-D, The Face, Arena, Citizen K, Flair, GQ, Esquire, and Marie Claire.
- She has been on over 7000 magazine covers throughout the world — a total that is only second to Princess Diana's.
- In 1999, Vogue noted Gisele as "The Return of the Sexy Model." From the following year, she signed the contract to be one of the Victoria's Secret Angels, till the year 2007.
- She dated a Brazilian actor – Rodrigo Santoro the same year, and this relationship also didn’t last long.
- The next year, she was on the cover of the music magazine Rolling Stone after she was dubbed "the most beautiful girl in the world." Time also named her as “one of the few runway models whom straight men can name.”
- She is the fourth supermodel in the world to grace the cover of Rolling Stone.
- She was considered for the role of Alex Munday in the movie Charlie's Angels (2000), but she turned down the offer.
- Gisele was in every Dolce & Gabbana fashion campaign from the year 1998 to 2003, a total of 11 consecutive campaigns. Again from 2006 to 2009, she was the face of the brand's fragrance, in a campaign titled "Dolce & Gabbana The One."
- She wore the most expensive Victoria's Secret Fantasy bra of all time, the "Red Hot Fantasy Bra", worth $15 million in the year 2000, which was listed in Guinness World Records as the most expensive lingerie ever created.
- She started dating the A-list American Actor – Leonardo DiCaprio and was in relationship with him till 2004. The duo was even listed in the People's annual Most Beautiful Couples List.
- She launched Ipanema Gisele Bündchen in association with the official Ipanema brand of flip-flops, in the year 2001. In the next three years, the brand got her more than $30 million, a portion of which were contributed to green causes. Every year, she chooses a different charity to donate the proceeds of sales from the brand.
- Since 2004, Gisele has been the highest paid model in the world.
- She made her debut as actress playing the role of the bank robbers' leader, Vanessa, in the 2004 remake Taxi.
- She won nominations for two awards - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Breakout Performance – Female and Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Bad Guy.
- The next year, she was again chosen to wear the second most expensive Victoria's Secret Fantasy Bra - the Sexy Splendor Fantasy Bra worth $12.5 million.
- New York Magazine issued a list of 123 reasons to love New York City, with Gisele living there as the reason number 43, in the same year.
- Her next movie was a minor character in The Devil Wears Prada, in the year 2006.
- She dated a surfer Kelly Slater, though the relationship was short-lived, as again in December, she was involved in a romantic relationship with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
- In 2007, she was back to the runway, with Milan opening and Dolce & Gabbana’s show closing. Time magazine featured her as one among the 100 most influential people in the world.
- She opened “The Luz Organization” that advocates the empowerment of young girls, in the year 2007. She auctioned her own diamond collection, an autographed iPod loaded with a personal playlist, and much more for various charities.
- She was listed as the fourth-most-powerful person in the fashion world, by the New York Daily News. She was also named as the 16th richest woman in the entertainment industry.
- On 12 May 2009, The Independent called her "the biggest star in fashion history," while Harper's Bazaar rated her among the top 26 greatest models of all time.
- She was designated as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program.
- Gisele married her partner Tom Brady on February 26, 2009 in a small Catholic ceremony at St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica, California. Brady revealed in an interview that the couple was first set up on a blind date.
- The duo remarried in a larger ceremony in Costa Rica on April 5, 2009 with her stepson John. Gisele and Brady have 2 kids - son Benjamin Rein Bundchen Brady born on December 9, 2009 and daughter Vivian Lake Bundchen Brady born on December 5, 2012.
- The couple’s house in Los Angeles uses gray water system, solar energy, rain water recovery system, reduced energy consumption program, waste reduction and recycling system. The entire house is built from recovered stone, wood and only used household appliances with a green seal. Gisele and Brady are building a new home in Boston, and also own a $14 million condominium in Manhattan.
- During 2009–2010, she was named the top earning supermodel. She was in the list of "Most Desirable Women" along with Angelina Jolie and Beyoncé Knowles.
- In 2010, Gisele introduced a skin care product line - Sejaa Pure Skincare. She also owns a separate lingerie line - Gisele Bundchen Brazilian Intimates.
- She donated $1.5 million to the Red Cross for the relief effort in Haiti in the 2010 and wrote a check of $1 million, the next year, for Tohoku earthquake and tsunami fund.
- She was ranked 60th on the list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women, by Forbes in August 2011, and ranked third on the 20 Youngest Power Women of 2011 list.
- The same year, Gisele and Brady were named the World's Highest Paid Celebrity couple, beating Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as well as Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
- She received the Greenest Celebrity award, and was named as the year’s Global Environmental Citizen by Harvard. Her project – Forests of the future, set up with SOS Mata Atlantic, has planted more than 1 million trees in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest in her name. She was ranked No. 4, behind Pelé, Paulo Coelho and Neymar on Forbes Brazil's list of the 100 most influential Brazilian celebrities. In 2012 she placed first on the Forbes top-earning models list. She was hired as the spokesmodel for C&A Brazil, after which the sales increased by 30 percent.
- The same year, the website Vogue.it stated "the Brazilian model is the King Midas of fashion. Everything she touches turns to gold and companies that have invested in her have reaped the rewards."
- In 2012, she was ranked 15th by Forbes in the list of Most Generous Celebrities. She is also one of 22 designers to design a collection for the charity Born Free Africa mission – with the aim to end mother-to-child HIV transmission at birth.
- Gisele has donated $150,000 to Brazil's Zero Hunger program. She designed a limited necklace edition for Harper's Bazaar, to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
- In May 2014, she was hired by the iconic fragrance Chanel No.5, as the new spokeswoman. As of 2014, she is listed as the 89th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes, and also notably the only model in the list.
