Gisele Bundchen Recalls Having Suicidal Thoughts From Stress Of Her Modeling Career

Gisele Bundchen says that she contemplated suicide amid the most stressful moments of her modeling career. Reflecting on the mental health struggles she's dealt with during an upcoming appearance on CBS News Sunday Morning, Bundchen admitted she considered jumping from her ninth-floor apartment window.

“You know, I was in tunnels,” she told journalist Lee Cowan. “I couldn’t breathe. And then I started being in studios, and I felt, like, suffocated.” From there, she recalled living on the ninth floor of a building at the time and taking the stairs because she was afraid of the elevator. “I’d be hyperventilating. … You know when you can’t breathe even when the windows are open, you feel like, I don’t want to live like this, you know what I mean?” When asked whether she was being serious about contemplating jumping, she responded: “Yeah. For, like, a second."

Gisele Bundchen Attends The Met Gala

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 01: Gisele Bundchen attends The 2023 Met Gala Celebrating "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 01, 2023, in New York City. (Photo by James Devaney/GC Images)

It's not the first time Bundchen has admitted to having suicidal thoughts. She also addressed the struggle ahead of the release of her memoir, Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life, in 2018. “I actually had the feeling of, ‘If I just jump off my roof, this is going to end, and I never have to worry about this feeling of my world closing in,’” she told PEOPLE at the time.

Gisele Bundchen On Dealing With Anxiety

For more than twenty years Gisele Bündchen has been one of the highest-paid supermodels, but she says she experienced extreme anxiety because of her lifestyle. Tomorrow she opens up about healthy living, her new role with @GaiaHerbs, and what she most cherishes. pic.twitter.com/vllRmgCHxl

— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) September 23, 2023

Regardless, Bundchen says that she's in a better place now. “I’m able to choose more of what I want,” she told CBS from her home in Costa Rica. “I think before I was more surviving, and now I’m living, which is different.” The update comes after her recent divorce from NFL legend Tom Brady. The two share two kids: son Benjamin, 13, and daughter Vivian, 10. Be on the lookout for the CBS News Sunday Morning interview at 9:00 AM.

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