So, here’s the thing: Gisele Bündchen having a baby at 44 with her boyfriend Joaquim Valente is wonderful news. They’re in love! They’re healthy and happy! Babies are cute! Her two older kids with ex Tom Brady can babysit! However, when it comes to celebrities having kids, it can be hard to silence your inner mom police from voicing their opinions. If you’re a mom yourself — and especially if you’re a mom who happens to be around Bündchen’s age — those police can be loud and might even compel you to write stuff on social media about the nightmares that surely lie ahead…
“Oof, I wouldn’t want a baby at 44! She’ll be exhausted!”
It’s true that babies are tiring, and that’s the case if you have them in your twenties or thirties too. But let’s look at the facts — sure, baby number three will make her a slightly older mom than average (although in the U.S., the number of women over 40 giving birth has increased by 318 percent in the past few decades), but this is Gisele Bündchen, supermodel. She oozes vitality and wellness from every perfect pore, plus, as one of the wealthiest supermodels out there, she’ll have plenty of resources on tap to take the edge off. And don’t forget, jiu-jitsu instructor Valente is 35 — a very regular new dad age. If you wouldn’t want a baby at 44, we get it — believe Us, we get it, and have the undereye concealer stash to prove it — but these two are well-placed to be just fine.
“Who wants to go through perimenopause with a toddler?”
Perimenopause is tough whatever age your kids are. In fact, perimenopause, which tends to start in women’s mid-forties, is tough if you don’t have kids. Sure, symptoms like insomnia, hot flashes and mood swings are going to sting that little bit more if you have young kids, with all of their physical demands — but they’re not exactly a walk in the park if you have older kids or teenagers, with all of their emotional demands, either.
“It’s not fair on the kid! Gisele will be the oldest mom at high school graduation!”
Maybe so, but will she look like the oldest mom (in her early 60s) at high school graduation? Sadly for the rest of us, it seems unlikely.
“The age gap with her other kids is too big!”
Bündchen has been through the whole uniquely challenging “baby and a toddler” situation, and now she gets to enjoy the “baby and two kids actually old enough to be helpful” scenario instead: her two children with Brady — Benjamin, 14, and Vivian, 11 — are the perfect age to be superstar siblings. They can bring her snacks while she’s breastfeeding rather than demanding them, and it won’t be long before they can babysit too. Sure, these guys can afford a nanny for that, but it’s just lovely to keep it in the family. As Benjamin and Vivian grow into adulthood, they’ll have a cool little sibling to keep them up to date with the latest trends, who they in turn can dispense wisdom to. Really, it’s a dreamy set-up. And noise-canceling headphones exist if the new arrival is distracting them from their schoolwork and/or phones.
“Why doesn’t she just enjoy her relationship with a hot younger guy instead of making it hard?”
No doubt these two have been quietly enjoying their relationship plenty. Yes, it’s relatively new — they officially confirmed they were dating in 2023 — but they had a solid friendship first. Plus, we’re sure Bündchen entered into the relationship knowing that Valente might want kids of his own some day. As a family jiu-jitsu instructor, he’s already great with them — and let’s face it, this baby is going to have some great genes.
“All the other moms she meets will be so much younger! They’ll have nothing in common!”
Since Bündchen and Valente spend most of their time holed up in Costa Rica, we’re not sure there are many suburban baby sensory classes or soft play hellscapes in their future. But if there are … well, these days there are tons of cool 40-something moms out there for her to befriend: Mindy Kaling, Chloe Sevigny and Paris Hilton have all nailed the “slightly older mom” thing in recent years. In Bündchen’s case, it’s not her first rodeo, so if she does make some younger mom friends on the baby scene, she’ll be the chill one who knows what she’s doing while everyone else stresses about sleep windows and weaning methods. And if she does need to bust out some Gen Z chat to win over a younger mom crowd, she’s already got kids who can teach her all about skibidi toilet.
