For Tom Brady, its marriage in the end zone and game over for good.
In a windswept confessional style Instagram video, the famed footballer, he of the incomparable jaw line, geriatric female fan base and legendary career, announced his retirement…again.
The decision is the latest in a line of dramatic changes for the Leo pope of the pigskin. In October of 2022, Brady and Cancer wife Gisele Bündchen announced their divorce after 13 years together.
Rumors of the end were sparked earlier in 2K22 when the Brazilian babe left Brady in Tampa to decamp to the couple’s Costa Rican compound after an “epic fight.” Various accounts blamed the break and subsequent breakup on Brady’s decision to un-retire from football and tap out on family life. Bündchen was later spotted lawyering up and spiritually cleansing her SUV.
Hell hath no fury like a double water sign scorned, folks.
Both Brady and Bündchen, who married in 2009 and share three children, have released public statements acknowledging the split, their gratitude for one another and commitment to co-parenting while asking for privacy as they navigate the new space of separateness.
As different as night and day
In astrology, the sun is the ultimate sign of the self and Brady and Bündchen’s are in the not so compatible signs of Leo and Cancer. To illustrate just how different Brady and Bündchen’s sun signs are, consider that Leo is ruled by the sun and Cancer the moon, quite literally night and day.
Leo wants to shine/be seen and Cancer wants to nest/retreat which can make reconciling a mutually beneficial home life something of a challenge. Did the stars always spell divorce for this golden couple? Read on to learn more.
Double fire
For Brady, there’s a real fear that if he can’t go to war IE play ball and have the world watch, he will cease to exist, suggesting that guts and glory are more important than safety and serenity.
Tom Brady, who turned 45 on August 3 is a Leo sun and Aries moon, making him double fire and all athlete. Leo needs to shine and Aries needs to act, meaning Brady’s career choice is utterly apt. Yet, the lesson for Leo is to find the love they need and attention they crave in close circles rather than wide arenas. An Aries moon is the mark of someone who has spent many, many lifetimes doing battle and has incarnated this go round to surrender their weapons and take up a cause that requires their energy but does not compromise their life, perhaps a lesson Brady will take to heart in the wake of his split.
The star quarterback, who has a reported net worth of $250 million, announced his retirement from football in February 2022 before walking the walk away back a biblical 40 days later with the news that he had signed on to play with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Why? For an athlete with Brady’s placements, there’s a real fear that if they can’t go to war IE play ball and have the world watch, they will cease to exist, suggesting that guts and glory are more important than safety and marital serenity.
Because of the fixed, fiery nature of his sun and the initiating energy of his cardinal moon, Brady knows what he wants and will stand, bold and staunchly defiant in the face of compromise. Fun times.
As astrologer Alice Sparkly Kat deftly notes of Brady’s sun/moon combination, “You expect not only love and loyalty but adoration at all times. It is not that you believe you are necessarily better than others but do not see why you should concede your heart’s desires for others when they very well have the freedom go directly after their own wants. A major conflict in your life is the tension between complete obedience to meeting the self’s desires and the need for social acceptance.”
We wish Brady well in his next chapter and $375 million dollar deal with Fox Sports to be a booth analyst.
Double water
Born July 20, 1980 Bündchen is double water with her sun in the cardinal sign of Cancer and her moon in the fixed tides of Scorpio, a combination that suggests an interdependent relationship, a solid home, and control over both are of primary importance. As Bündchen revealed to “Vanity Fair” in 2009, “My idea of that is you have a partner who’s got your back. When I’m weak, you can be strong; when I’m strong, you can be weak. That’s what I believe marriage is. Loving someone, you want to grow with them, share with them, share the same values, the same feelings about things, the same beliefs.” It seems that the diverging of these shared principles was at the heart of the couple’s split.
The fixed quality of Bündchen’s moon and the compassionate vibe of her sun indicate a person who is willing to go to great lengths to preserve her relationships and support her partner. But make no mistake, she is no martyr, no push over. Bündchen takes promises as oaths and she sees with clarity the role she has played and sacrifices she has made. As she confided to Elle Magazine, “I’ve done my part, which is [to] be there for [Tom]. I moved to Boston, and I focused on creating a cocoon and a loving environment for my children to grow up in and to be there supporting him and his dreams…At this point in my life, I feel like I’ve done a good job on that.” It seems Bündchen is at peace with who she is as a wife, mother and support system, perhaps playing that part without reciprocation became too much to bear, heralding a game over for she and Brady.
Curtains or compromise?
Bündchen’s birth chart, particularly her sun and moon, support her intense and intensely sacrificial view of motherhood while Brady’s supports individuation and the following of one’s own path at all costs.
Brady and Bündchen are a couple who have navigated inclement emotional weather throughout their relationship. Just a few months after they began dating, Brady’s ex Bridget Monahan revealed she was pregnant with his child, delivering son Jack later that year. True to the maternal archetype of her sun sign, Bündchen came to view Jack as a child of her own and framed Brady’s handling of the messy paternity situation as proof of his strength and fortitude. This grace under kerfufflle energy has thus far been echoed in Brady and Bündchen’s approach to their uncoupling.
In addition to Jack, the couple are parents to son Benjamin and daughter Vivian. Being the double water momma that she is, Bündchen insisted on an at home water birth for both. In the most Cancer sun/Scorpio moon description of birth I have ever seen, Bündchen said of the experience, “I felt like Kali, the Hindu goddess of time, creation, destruction, and power, a feeling of invincibility. I could chew rocks in half! I could split mountains in two! I could divide oceans! When a baby is born, a mother takes a step backwards. A part of her dies. It was also the death of me-ness, of ego, of putting myself and my own needs first.”
Bündchen’s birth chart, particularly her sun and moon, support her intense and intensely sacrificial view of motherhood while Brady’s supports individuation and the following of one’s own path at all costs. The influence of Bündchen’s Scorpio moon indicates a powerful and persuasive person that leverages emotion, values commitment and keeps careful track of broken promises and perceived betrayals.
It would seem that in the end, Brady’s ambitions proved paramount to Bündchen’s needs.
In this sense it is easy to understand Bündchen’s ire at Brady’s decision to forgo retirement in pursuit of playing the game. For her, the pain is multi point; as a maternal Cancer, she’s concerned about the welfare of his body and mind, revealing, “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.” It would seem that in the end, Brady’s ambitions proved paramount to Bündchen’s needs.
Martian Moons
Interestingly, both Bündchen and Brady’s moon signs are ruled by Mars. In astrology the moon represents our emotional interiority and attachment styles while the energy of Mars is willful, war mongering and dead set on desire. The suggests that for Bündchen and Brady, getting their needs met is a fierce, and fiercely uncompromising pursuit. Having a pair of Martian moons in a relationship correlates to intense passions, primal hair pulling, soul dissolving sex, explosive fights and the serious potential to be transformed in and through their partnership.
With their divorced finalized it would seem these two have at last laid down their weapons and conceded to their differences, which makes me hopeful for their next chaper. While they have called it quits on coupledom I believe space will allow them to accept and celebrate one another as separate from themselves, a vantage that will help them succeed as co-parents. The divorce may also serve to evenly redistribute some of the responsibilities of child care that Bündchen seems to have been shouldering.
End Zone
In Brady and Bündchen, you have two very formidable, very inflexible people with very different approaches to life, love, parenting and partnership. We hope that in their amicable decision to divorce, and Brady’s recent choice to retire, each are on the road towards personal betterment and ultimate happiness.
Astrology 101: Your guide to the stars
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Among the many intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, Cuban Airbnbs, a “girls guide” to strip clubs and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.