New York may hate the New England Patriots (dirty cheaters!). The city may especially hate Ken-doll quarterback Tom Brady, with his underinflated balls and his attempts to weasel out of an NFL suspension. And then there’s his supermodel wife, Gisele Bündchen, who issues imperious pronouncements on everything from how other women do pregnancy wrong to why her husband’s teammates suck. (Shaming the Pats for their 2012 Super Bowl loss to the Giants: “My husband cannot f - - king throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can’t believe they dropped the ball so many times.”)
But, for at least part of the year, they are us.
Brady and Bündchen split their time between a 14,000-square-foot manse in Boston’s exclusive Brookline nabe, about 28 miles from the Pats’ Gillette Stadium, and a $14 million apartment at luxe One Madison in Manhattan’s Flatiron District.
And even though the address is right there in the name, Brady, who’s playing in his seventh Super Bowl on Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons, doesn’t seem to remember where he lives.
When scheduling a meeting with a New York Times reporter at his apartment in 2014, Brady e-mailed, “Hahaha, I wish I knew the address” and explained that it was the big building next to the McDonald’s on 23rd and Madison.
Of course, Brady and Bündchen — who follow an intense diet that allows no caffeine, dairy, sugar or tomatoes — probably aren’t ordering Big Macs when they’re in town. (A dietitian recently told The Post that the diet is sketchy.) Instead, the couple chows down on lean turkey burgers — sans buns — and healthful Brussels sprout Caesar salads at Almond, a farm-to-table bistro a block from their building (which is located at One Madison, Tom).
Almond hostess Vivian Achieng told The Post that the restaurant “is like their living room” and that they favor a back booth near the billiards room, where their kids — Ben, 7; Vivian, 4; and John, 9, Brady’s son with ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan — play. Co-owner Lee Felty added that the family, who were last in about six weeks ago, are “super friendly, always gracious. [Brady has a] big smile on his face and [is] a good tipper” — so good that the waitstaff jockey among themselves to serve them.
The clan, which reportedly has Bibles scattered around its apartment, has been spotted attending Sunday morning services at the Church of St. Thomas More on the Upper East Side. (Brady and Bündchen, who were both raised in the faith, had a Catholic ceremony when they wed in 2009.)
After weekend brunch at Almond, Sant Ambroeus on the Upper East Side, or Extra Virgin, a Mediterranean cafe in the West Village, the family sometimes heads to Chelsea Piers for a few rounds of laser tag, an employee confirmed. NYC date nights for Brady, 39, and Bündchen, 36, mean the very occasional red carpet, such as the Met Gala in the spring. But you’re more likely to find them having a cozy dinner at chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s ABC Kitchen.
The couple, who, according to Page Six, have vacationed with Ben Affleck and his now-estranged wife, Jennifer Garner, in Montana, don’t seem to have many pals they hang out with in NYC.
“My friends, they probably don’t get as much time as they used to,” Brady told ABC News in 2016, adding that he’s usually in bed by 8:30 most nights.
“[Bündchen] is more of a family girl,” Brazilian gossip columnist Joyce Pascowitch told The Post. “I don’t think she has a girls’ night out anymore.” She recalled how, in Bündchen’s single days, the 5-foot-11 stunner was part of a tightknit group of models who hung out in the West Village.
“She went to parties. She smoked and drank a lot,” a Brazilian journalist who ran in the same circles as Bündchen in the early 2000s told The Post.
“She loved the Spotted Pig. Now, because of her strict diet, she doesn’t eat out often,” he added. “She basically goes to Whole Foods and prepares her own meals.”
While the younger kids attend school in Boston, a Bündchen friend says the family will never give up its NYC roots.
Unlike some other models, Bündchen doesn’t spend a ton of her Manhattan time on grooming.
Her longtime friend and hairdresser Harry Josh told The Post, “I literally have to beg her to come into the salon for touch-ups.” Josh, who works out of the posh Serge Normant salon at John Frieda in West Chelsea, said, “She only [goes] to Serge Normant and only does her hair when she is here and I can pin her down — about two to three times a year.”
Bündchen has popped into her neighborhood nail shop Polaris just once for a $42 mani-pedi. “She didn’t talk much, but she was nice,” said a salon staffer.
Not everyone in the Flatiron District feels that way about Brady, though.
Postal worker Alam Shaikh, who delivers mail to One Madison, said Brady blew him off when he asked the superstar for his autograph. “He said, ‘I have no time,’ ” Shaikh said.
Asked if he would be rooting for Brady on Sunday, Shaikh said, “Hell no. I’m not his fan.”
And a neighbor sniffed as she said of the paparazzi that camp outside One Madison when the glam couple is in town, “[They’re] here for Gisele, not him.”
While the younger kids attend school in Boston, a Bündchen friend says the family will never give up its NYC roots.
“I think it’s important to her to raise their kids partially in New York. There’s a high level of education and culture,” said Lorenzo Martone, a fashion insider and fellow Brazilian who’s known the model since her single days. “It’s about experience. [The kids will] get so much from the most vibrant city in the world.”
There’s another big reason to keep a place here: Brady’s son John — whom Bündchen, regularly spotted cheering from the sidelines at his soccer games, is said to be very close to — lives in the city with his mom, Moynahan.
It’s unclear, though, if Bündchen and Brady have a favorite neighborhood. He’s lived in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle; she previously had a West Village townhouse. And now they’re set to leave the Flatiron, having plunked down a cool $20 million for a five-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot Tribeca pad at 70 Vestry St. in Tribeca. Designed by famed architect Robert A.M. Stern, the French-limestone condo building is slated to be ready in 2018 and will reportedly feature an automated garage, hot and cold plunge pools, a regulation squash court, and studios for cycling, yoga and pilates.
“I think they will be spending more time in New York once [that] apartment is finished,” said the Brazilian pal. “New York is special to [Bündchen]. Today, she’s more of a New Yorker than a Brazilian.”
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