Anna Webber / Getty Images

Tom Brady’s physical decline during the final months of his marriage reportedly became impossible for his Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammates and coaches to ignore. A forthcoming biography claims he dropped an estimated 20 pounds, lost his “vibrancy of spirit” and returned from an 11-day absence as “an empty shell of who he was.”

The account appears in Lars Anderson’s “Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness,” which is scheduled for release Tuesday, September 29. An excerpt published by the Daily Mail details the strain preceding Brady’s 2022 divorce from Gisele Bündchen.

Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen share a kiss on the field at Raymond James Stadium after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Super Bowl LV victory on February 7, 2021. Photo by Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images.

“For Tom to lose that much weight, on his frame, it was a lot,” former Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians says in the book. “It was very clear that the reason for the weight loss was the stress from the personal issues he was dealing with.”

Another coach offers a harsher description, claiming Brady’s “cheekbones had freaking cheekbones.” The coach adds, “With all respect, he looked like a cancer patient with really good hair. He just seemed miserable, not even close to the Tom we all loved. He was so stressed.”

The biography traces the marriage’s problems back at least as far as the New England Patriots’ 2018 Super Bowl loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Anderson writes that Bündchen gave Brady a letter explaining that their marriage wasn’t working and asking for more of his time, attention and presence. She also reportedly wanted more time for her own career.

Gisele Bündchen, in a shimmering pink gown, wraps her arm around Brady as the couple poses together on the red carpet at the 2019 Met Gala in New York City. Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images.

One teammate questioned how often Brady supported Bündchen’s work and said there were “clearly” imbalances in the relationship, particularly because she was “a bigger international star than” Brady.

Brady announced his retirement in early 2022, reversed that decision and returned to the Buccaneers for another season. During the team’s 2022 training camp, he allegedly told coach Clyde Christensen that he needed to “take care of some personal things” and left for 11 days.

The book says Brady traveled to a private resort in the Bahamas to meet with Bündchen and try to repair their marriage. Christensen says he “didn’t know if [Brady] was ever coming back.” When the quarterback returned, the coach says he “was an empty shell of who he was.”

At the 2026 Fanatics Super Bowl Party in San Francisco on Feb. 7, 2026, Tom Brady stands before a Fanatics step-and-repeat, wearing tinted aviator glasses and a white cap. Photo by Anna Webber / Getty Images.

Bündchen allegedly ended the marriage by saying, “We’re not compatible.” The couple married in 2009 and divorced in 2022. They share Benjamin Rein, 16, and Vivian Lake, 13.

Brady retired again in 2023. He also shares Jack Moynahan, 19, with Bridget Moynahan. Bündchen welcomed a son with Joaquim Valente in February 2025 and married the jiu-jitsu instructor later that year.

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