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Tom Brady Writes Emotional Tribute To Supermodel Wife Gisele Bundchen On Facebook

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - Tom Brady has penned an emotional tribute to his wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who announced her retirement from the runway Wednesday night.

Bundchen bid adieu to the catwalk after strutting her stuff at an emotionally charged show in Sao Paulo after a 20-year career that has made her a fashion legend.

The 34-year-old Brazilian mother of two has said she wants to spend more time with her family but has also vowed to continue working in the industry. Brady was on hand for Bundchen's final appearance, competing with his wife for the cameras' attention as he took in the spectacle from the first row.

"Congratulations love of my life," Brady wrote on Facebook. "You inspire me every day to be a better person. I am so proud of you and everything you have accomplished on the runway. I have never met someone with more of a will to succeed and determination to overcome any obstacle in the way. You never cease to amaze me. Nobody loves life more than you and your beauty runs much deeper than what the eye can see. I can't wait to see what's next. I love you."

Congratulations Love of my Life. You inspire me every day to be a better person. I am so proud of you and everything you...

Posted by Tom Brady on Wednesday, April 15, 2015

As CBS2's Jill Nicolini reported, New Yorkers offered a variety of responses.

"I think Tom Brady makes me want to puke," Dimitri Litos said.

"It's his wife. You should be doing that. He should be doing whatever he can to make her happy," Andrew Traficante said.

"I'm really proud of her and I think she made a good decision. She should get to be with her kids more," Willow Lopez added.

"It's a sad day for men everywhere," Daniel Murphey said.

As the world's highest-paid model, according to a 2014 ranking by Forbes magazine, Bundchen is the face of Chanel, Carolina Herrera, Pantene and other top brands. She also designs her own line of flip flops and lingerie.

A household name the world over, Bundchen rivals soccer legend Pele for the status of Brazil's most internationally famous citizen, and her meteoric rise from a middle-class family in a small, rural town to superstar is the stuff of modeling legend.

In a posting Wednesday on her Instagram account, Bundchen wrote, "Today after 20 years in the industry, it is a privilege to be doing my last fashion show by choice and yet still be working in other facets of the business.''

"I am grateful that at 14, I was given the opportunity to start this journey,'' she wrote.

In an interview broadcast on the Globo television network Wednesday, she compared her life to a cup of water filled to the brim.

"If your cup is full, how are you going to put more into it?'' she said in Portuguese. "I'm emptying my cup so I can put more things into it.''

Bundchen made her final catwalk appearance during Sao Paulo Fashion Week for Colcci, the Brazilian streetwear label she has represented since 2005. She made three appearances, opening the show in an A-line dress in white lace and lacey, knee-high black boots and closing it in a sundress with a full skirt in ivory and salmon stripes.

For the final bow, a bevy of models emerged in jeans and T-shirts printed with Bundchen's image, and Bundchen herself wove her way through the pack, sporting painted-on jeans and a top depicting her in a yoga pose. Fighting back tears, she flashed her trademark broad smile and a thumbs-up.

In an interview earlier this week with the newspaper Estado de S. Paulo, Bundchen was quoted as saying she wanted her last runway experience to be in her native Brazil, "where it all started.''

She was born and raised along with five sisters, including a fraternal twin, in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, a center of German immigration to Brazil. Bundchen was discovered by a modeling agency at age 14 and she came in second place in a nationwide modeling contest, before moving to New York to work the fashion runways there.

By age 20, she'd become a fashion sensation, her freckled face and flowing dirty blond locks gracing the cover of top fashion magazines worldwide and her unique combination of legginess and curves causing a sensation during her runway appearances. Bundchen's success with her healthy good looks was heralded as marking the end of the sickly skinny and bedraggled "heroin chic'' look that had dominated runways for years.

Her romantic life was regularly splashed across gossip magazines, as she was romantically linked to a series of A-listers, from surfer Kelly Slater to actor Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2009, she married New England Patriots quarterback Brady. The couple has two children.

Last year, she out-earned Brady, netting an estimated $47 million on contracts, according to Forbes. The next highest-earning models on the Forbes celebrity list, Doutzen Kroes of the Netherlands and fellow Brazilian Adriana Lima, earned $8 million each, according to the magazine.

(TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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