Gisele Bündchen is one of the most famous supermodels in the world — but people still can’t seem to get her name right.
A video of the model clarifying how her Portuguese name is actually pronounced during a 2005 appearance on the “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” show recently resurfaced online — and it’s not what we all thought.
In the interview, Bündchen reflected on her experience moving to the United States at 16 to pursue a career in modeling despite speaking very little English.
However, the language barrier quickly became an issue when she would go to castings and directors constantly mispronounced her name.
Bündchen explained that, in Portuguese, her name is pronounced like “Gisele-y,” with a long vowel “e” at the end.
While in her home country of Brazil, they view the “e” as an “I,” in English-speaking countries, they “eat” the last part of her name and make the “e” silent.
Due to the confusion, casting directors often wouldn’t recognize her when she tried to check in for jobs.
“I’d be like, ‘This is not a difficult name!’ ” she recalled. “So I would just write it down.”
Despite trying to correct people at the beginning of her career, Bündchen eventually gave up.
“So, whatever, it was Gisele in the end, I guess,” she conceded. “Call me whatever you feel like.”
For more Page Six you love…
Not only did the Victoria’s Secret model have to deal with people mispronouncing her name but other models also took advantage of the language divide.
While sharing an apartment with several other models, the girls convinced Bündchen that “a—hole” was a term of endearment.
“I was so excited that I learned this new word so I wrote it down,” she explained, noting that she tested it on her 70-year-old doorman.
“He was really nice … so I go up to him one morning and said, ‘Good morning, a—hole!” she recalled.
When she got to work that morning she tested her new favorite word again.
“I get to the agency and I’m like, to everybody to all the bookers, ‘Hi a—holes!’” she continued.
Thankfully, one of the women at the office spoke Spanish and explained to Bünchen that she couldn’t go around calling people that.
Although the “mean” girls she lived with “got in trouble,” the supermodel was never able to apologize to her sweet doorman.
“I couldn’t ever say I’m sorry to the guy — to the doorman — because I didn’t know how to say it!”
Although Bündechen can look back and laugh at her past mishaps, she didn’t find ex-husband Tom Brady’s recent Netflix roast a laughing matter.
The model was reportedly “deeply disappointed” by the jokes about her ill-fated marriage and newfound romance with jiu-jitsu trainer Joaquim Valente.
However, an insider told Page Six that Brady was unaware of the jokes ahead of time and suggested that Bündchen “get a sense of humor.”
Bündchen and Brady split in 2022 after 13 years of marriage.
