Tom Brady described his struggles balancing football and his three children amid his spat with wife Gisele Bündchen.
“You can’t stop your life even though sports is happening,” the NFL player, 45, said on Monday’s episode of his “Let’s Go! with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray” podcast of raising Jack, 15, Benjamin, 12, and Vivian, 9.
“Even though I’m playing in my 23rd year, I have a freshman in high school that is playing football, too,” Brady continued. “I have a 12-year-old that is going through his life. I have a 9-year-old that is going through her life. And I have parents.”
The athlete noted that he has a hard time deciding how to “maximize” his family and career goals.
“Once football season comes, I really lock in on what I need to do and how I need to focus and the kind of commitment I need to make for the organization,” he said, adding that he does not want to “cheat” fans.
The seven-time Super Bowl winner also addressed his return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after a short-lived retirement.
“I just felt like I had a little left. And I want to give it a shot,” he said. “I owed it to my teammates and our great coaches and our whole organization.”
The quarterback’s decision led a to an “epic” fight with Bündchen, Page Six exclusively reported last Thursday, with the supermodel, 42, leaving their Florida home to fly to Costa Rica solo.
“They had agreed he would retire to focus on the family, then he changed his mind,” a source explained of the argument, saying Brady was “sad” but focused on being a “super dad” to his little ones.
Upon Bündchen’s return, the former Victoria’s Secret Angel took her and Brady’s two children — the former New England Patriots player shares Jack with his ex Bridget Moynahan — to a water park in Aventura.
Brady did not attend the family outing, instead remaining in Tampa.
Last month, the footballer missed 11 days of training and blamed his absence on “personal … s–t.”
Brady, who has been married to Bündchen since 2009, explained, “Everyone’s got different situations they’re dealing with. We all have really unique challenges to our life.”