Gisele Budchen

Date of Birth
20 July 1980, Horizontina, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Birth Name
Gisele Caroline Nonnenmacher Bündchen

Nickname
Gise
The Body
The Midas Queen
The Hurricane Gisele
La Bundchen

Height
5' 11" (1.80 m)

Mini Biography
It was in 1994 when Gisele Bundchen was discovered at age 14 in a Brazilian fashion mall, and now she is "the" most famous face in the business. Since then, Gisele has graced the covers of countless magazines as any other model in the history, including Rolling Stone, Time, Forbes, Newsweek and all the fashion top magazines such as Vogue, W, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, i-D, The Face, and many others. Gisele also has multi-million dollars deals with some of the world's biggest companies. Her contract with Victoria's Secret is the biggest in the fashion industry, and she also has deals with Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Bulgari, Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino, Joop!, Otto, Lanvin, Guerlain, Nivea, DSquared, St. John, Colcci, Vivo, Vogue Eyewear and Grendene. Her own line of shoes, called "Ipanema Gisele Bundchen", have sold more than 100 million pairs since 2001.


Spouse
Tom Brady (26 February 2009 - present) 1 child

Trivia
She has five sisters: Raquel, Graziela, Gabriela, Rafaela and Patrícia (who was born in the same day, but is not an identical twin).

Originally wanted to be a professional volleyball player and had even thought of becoming a member for Brazilian team, Sogipa.

Speaks Portuguese as her native language, as well as English as her second language.

Spokesmodel of Dolce & Gabbana.

Spokesmodel of Bvlgari.

Spokesmodel of Strenesse.

Appeared on the covers of major magazines, such as Vogue, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, W, Rolling Stone, marie claire, ELLE, and i-D.

Spokesmodel of Christian Dior.

Spokesmodel of Missoni.

Spokesmodel of Ralph Lauren.

Measurements: 36C-24-35 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

Officially announced that she and Leonardo DiCaprio had broken up. [July 2002]

Of German-Brazilian heritage

In 2004, she and her boyfriend, Leonardo DiCaprio, visited the "Xingu", a famous Brazilian Indian Reserve. The visit was made almost anonymously.

As supporter of soccer club Grêmio, a soccer team from her hometown, Gisele announced in 2005 she will help promote the image of her favorite team, a former world champion, which is now in the second division of Brazilian League.

Is 5 minutes older than twin sister Patrícia.

One of the world's top fashion models.

Her mother, Vânia Bundchen, is of German descent.

Was discovered by a modeling scout when she was fourteen while on a school trip to Porto Alegre.

Began modeling in New York City in 1996.

Created her own brand of footwear for women called "Ipanema."

Designed a limited edition necklace sold to raise money for St. Jude Children's Hospital cancer treatment efforts.

Has a Yorkshire terrier, Vida (meaning "life" in Portuguese).

Forbes magazine named her the best paid model of all time.

Appeared most often on the cover of American Vogue. She did four covers only in 1999. She is also the second model who most appeared on the cover of British Vogue, after Kate Moss.

Her personal fortune is valued at 150 million dollars, and she is in the Guinness Book of Records as "the world's richest supermodel".

After Brazilian clothier C&A hired her and started their TV commercials, the sales had an increase of 30%.

In 2001 she turned down a 20 million dollar offer from Clonaid to became their spokesperson.

Forbes magazine named her the best paid and powerful supermodel in the world, with earnings of 15.2 million dollars a year. She also makes millions with her sandals line.

Is considered the biggest supermodel in the world, casually called "übermodel".

Ranked #21 on E! Television's 2006 101 Hottest Celebrity Bodies

She is the owner of a hotel in Rio Grande do Sul State, south of Brazil, the Palladium Executive Flat.

She has received the "Model of the Year" award and has been named "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" by Rolling Stone and the "perfect body in the world" by The Sunday Times.

Her other homes include an penthouse apartment in Manhattan's Tribeca district, a Los Angeles mansion and a country house near Woodstock, New York.

In 2003 she donated $150,000 - her fee for one fashion show in São Paulo Fashion Week - to help fight hunger in her native Brazil (January 27, 2003).

#77 on Forbes Magazine 2005 Top 100 Celebrity List.

Shares a birthday with "Lost" (2004) actor Josh Holloway.

Turned down a role in Charlie's Angels (2000), because of her busy agenda.

Is one of Jay Leno's favorite guests.

Chosen by People Magazine as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World."

She and Leonardo DiCaprio were chosen by People Magazine as the "Most Beatiful Couple in the World", in 2004.

Her father, Valdir Bundchen, is a Brazilian university teacher and writer, with two books published.

Her older sister, Raquel, is a Brazilian federal judge.

Her mother, Vânia Bundchen, starred with her in a Victoria's Secret ad for mother's day. Her father also made a commercial with her, for credit card company Credicard.

Chosen by Brazilian magazine IstoÉ Gente as the "most powerful woman in Brazil". (13 March 2006).

#43 on New York Magazine's list of the "123 Reasons to Love New York City", because she lives in New York.

After Gisele carried one bag made by British designer Luella Bartley on the catwalk, all the papers ran pictures of her with it, and this created a phenomenon. The company thought they might sell a few, but suddenly they had waiting-lists everywhere for what was already being called the "Gisele". The success of the Gisele bag propelled Luella into the highly lucrative accessories market.

She was considered for a role on the movie Charlie's Angels (2000). The director McG wanted someone outside from the United States to play the role of Alex Munday, which Lucy Liu eventually filled.

Ranked as #65 in FHM's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005" special supplement. (2005)

Gisele appeared in more than 7,000 magazine covers around the world. The only woman who made more covers was Princess Diana.

Gisele made her first international fashion show for british designer Alexander McQueen, who once named her as "The Body".

The 2004 TV ad of her line of shoes was shoot on Brazilian famous "Sambódromo", on Rio de Janeiro.

Was featured as #6 in Maxim Magazine's "Hot 100 of 2002" supplement. (2002)

#7 On E! Channel's countdown of the Sexiest Women in Entertainment (2002).

#7 On E! Channel's countdown of the Best Bodies in Hollywood (2003).

Gisele will be the face of a new campaign to protect the Amazon's Xingu River from deforestation and pollution. The campaign is called "Y Ikatu Xingu", wich means "clean and good Xingu water", in the native Kamaiura language. Gisele wants "to tell the world that the Amazon's waters are in danger". The Xingu River extends about 1,700 miles through the southern Amazon, including Brazil's first indian reservation, the 2.8 million-hectare (6.92 million-acre) Xingu National Park. The region was visited by her and ex-boyfriend 'Leonardo Dicaprio' in 2004.

In May of 2006, she signed another multi-million dollar deal, this time with american giant Apple. She will star in a new advertising campaign to promote the new MAC (Macintosh) line.

#1 on E! Channel's countdown of the World's Sexiest Supermodels (2006).

She was ranked #36 on VH1's "100 Hottest Hotties" (2005)

#1 On Forbes Magazine list of the World's Most Entrepreneurial Supermodels (2005)

#1 On VH1 countdown of "Today's Hottest Supermodels" (2005)

Her curvaceous figure prompted Vogue magazine to refer to her body of work as the "return of the sexy model", since she seems to have marked the end of a trend of "waif" models such as Kate Moss.

Ranked at #71 on Forbes magazine list of the 100 Most Powerful celebrities in the world, with earnings of 30 million dollars between June of 2005 and June of 2006. According to Forbes, "She's also a workhorse with 20 fashion contracts, including Ebel watches, Vogue Eyewear and Dolce & Gabbana. That's far more than any other model anywhere in the world. Her assets earned her more last year that many of the highest-paid actors on the Forbes Celebrity 100". (2006)

Offered a reward of $5,000 after her pet dog went missing, The pet was later safely found and returned. The couple who found the dog never received the reward. (2004).

Gisele was the fourth model in the history to grace the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, in 2000, with the tittle "The most beautiful girl in the world".

She ranked #34 in Stuff's 100 Sexiest Women (2001).

Ranked #19 in British Harpers & Queen's 100 Most Beautiful Women of the Year (July 2005)

Ranked #26 in FHM-Germany's 100 Sexiest Women (2005).

Ranked #2 on Access Hollywood's list of "It Girls" (2003).

Her relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio ended after 3 years [November 2005]

Elle magazine bosses surveyed the nation's leading stylists and asked them to name the star whose hair is a favourite for their clients. More than 50 per cent gave Gisele the title of best hair in Hollywood, while Sienna Miller came in at number two and Nicole Richie's short bob was voted number three. Natalie Portman's pixie cut came in fourth.

In August of 2006 she signed four new big deals: with Italian Stefanel stores and Mexican Liverpool, Koren-based company Tug and American Express, in which she will be the spokesperson of the "Red" credit card.

Gisele is the new face of the American Express RED campaign. She will star in the next high profile campaign with Keseme Ole Parsapet, a Maasai warrior from Kenya. The RED initiative was launched by U2 front man Bono and Robert Shriver Chairman Of Debt, Trade Africa. Consumers can help make an ethical impact in the fight against HIV and AIDS in Africa. Vogue online reported that Gisele, who was photographed by Nick Knight, said RED is an amazing project.

Named #1 Model Citizen by Maxim Magazine. (2006).

Named by Rolling Stone magazine as the biggest Brazilian popstar of all times. (2006).

Named #83 in FHM magazine's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006" supplement. (2006).

Ranked at number 16 on Forbes magazine list with the 20 richest women on entertainment (2007).

Ranked #14 on Askmen.com's Most Desirable Women (2007).

Ranked at #3 on British Glamour's magazine list of the 20 Sexiest Women Bodies in the world.

Has a niece named Eduarda (Raquel's daughter with lawyer Paulo Borges), born on August 18th 2006.

Gisele sold her Los Angeles mansion in April (2007) for $4 million. She bought the house in 2000 for $1.9 million.

#4 on American FHM magazine list of the world's sexiest women. (2007).

#52 on British FHM magazine list of the world's sexiest women. (2007).

Chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world (2007).

Two days after the news from her split from Victoria's Secret, she was announced as the new face of Yves Saint-Laurent, as well as the spokesperson of "Liberté", a new fragrance launched by Cacharel. She will also launch her own lingerie collection in a partnership with European giant company H&M. (May 2007).

In May of 2007 Gisele moved in to a Georgian-style townhouse in Manhattan's trendy West Village, which she bought in 2004 for $16.5 million.

#35 on Forbes Magazine 2007 Top 100 Celebrity List, with earnings of $33 million between June of 2006 and June of 2007.

Gisele was invited to host the Brazilian version of the reality-show "America's Next Top Model" (2003), but she refused. According to her sister and public relations, Patricia Bundchen, she doesn't want to pursue a career on television.

#1 on Forbes magazine list of the 15 Highest-Paid Models in the World. (July 2007).

Loves almonds.

Hates salami.

Economist Fred Fuld has developed a stock indice to measure the performance of the companies represented by Gisele at the Dow Jones Industrial Average. According to Fuld, the Gisele Bundchen Stock Index was up 15% during the period between May of 2007 and July of 2007, substantially outperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was up 8.2%.

Girlfriend of Tom Brady [2007].

She and Tom Brady became the parents of a boy, Benjamin [December 9, 2009].

Her name is pronounced Zhee-'zeh-lee 'Boond-shen (in Br-Portuguese) or 'Buend-shen (in German). She has said it doesn't matter to her now how people pronounce her name.


Personal Quotes
"To be a model is to be half actress. In the reality, I am a normal adolescent." Gisele Bündchen.

"I love horses. If I could, I would ride the whole day. When I get married, I'll live in the countryside, ride on horses and live among cows, chickens and dogs." - about her love for pets.

I think it's better when you're natural, when you just do whatever you want, instead of doing classes where I see all these other people holding back because they've been trained with certain skills or techniques. I'm like, whatever.

I'm a very private person. I like staying home and doing my stuff. I hate people invading on my privacy. I hate talking about my private life. You almost feel like they're invading your space, you know? I really hate that. I think that's very disrespectful and I think they should have a law against that.

I wouldn't say I'm going to quit modeling and become an actress, especially because I can't do that because I have contracts, but I definitely enjoyed it. I wouldn't call myself an actress, but I at the same time, if there is an opportunity... I believe in taking chances and living your life.

I don't think anyone likes to see a picture of themselves in a tabloid, besides a couple people who I'm not going to mention.

If everything that's written about me was true, I'd have about ten kids and I'd be married five times, one of them with some actor named Chris Evans, whose name I heard for the first time two hours ago.


Salary
The Devil Wears Prada (2006) $350,000
Taxi (2004/I) $1,800,000

Where Are They Now
(February 2006) Brazil for the launch of Louis Vuitton international campaign, in wich she is the star.

(March 2006) In New York City for the world launch of the new campaign of Vogue Eyewear, intitled "Gisele Plays with Vogue".

(April 2006) In New York City photographing the new editorial for Vogue magazine, "Fashion Rocks", with singer Ben Harper.

(March 2006) In Switzerland for the world launch of the new Ebel campaign.

(April 2006) In Paris for the photoshoot of the new ad campaign of Dolce & Gabbana. Gisele will be the face of the new fragrance by the famous italian brand, called "The One"

(December 2007) She is now the new model and spokesperson for Dolce and Gabbana.