Gisele
Gisele Caroline Bündchen, born on July 20, 1980, is the first Brazilian model to gain international success.
She was discovered at the age of 14 in a shopping mall by an agent from the Elite modeling agency. By the following year she was already chosen for the Elite Look of the Year contest. Gisele said she never dreamed of being a model, her goal was to become a professional volleyball player.
At the beginning of her carrier, she was often rejected for modeling jobs because “her nose was too big” but she ended up on over 7,000 magazine covers all over the world, putting her in second place, after Princess Diana, who has had the most covers in history.
Gisele was in every D&G fashion campaign since 1998. Alexander McQueen nicknamed her “The Body” because of her ability to walk in sky-high heels. As one of Victoria Secret’s angels, she wore the most expensive lingerie of all times, the “Red Hot Fantasy Bra”, made of diamonds, which was worth $15 million in 2000. Gisele is the highest paid model of all times but she is not only a model, she is an actress as well. She was considered for the role of Alex Munday in the movie Charlie’s Angels but she turned down the offer. The role then went to Lucy Liu.
Her native language is Portuguese but she is also fluent in Spanish, Italian and English. Her kids Vivian Lake and Benjamin Rein Brady are raised bilingually, speaking Portuguese and English. She is married to Tom Brady, American Superbowl star. Together they are worth $540 million and rumor has it that Gisele is the one who “wears the pants” in the home since she brings in $360 million.
Gisele is also a great humanitarian. She donated $150,000 to Zero Hunger program in Brazil, and designed a necklace which was sold with Harper’s Bazaar to raise money for St. Juda’s Children Research Hospital. She wrote a million dollar check to help Haiti after the earthquake and did the same the following year after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. She was ranked 15th by Forbes on the list of most generous celebrities.
Gisele is a very successful businesswoman as well. She has her own cosmetics, lingerie and footwear line. We would agree with Vogue that she is the King Midas of fashion – everything she touches turns to gold!
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