he former quarterback is going soft in his retirement — at least when it comes to saying yes to his daughter’s request for kittens
He’s been called the GOAT — now he’s the ABCD. (America’s Biggest Cad Dad.)
Okay, so maybe he’s not quite ready to clinch that title, but Tom Brady says he is surprised that he became a cat dad in the first place.
Now he has three. “They’re fun. And they’re pretty cute,” he tells PEOPLE of the little guys.
“I never thought I’d have a cat in my life,” Brady, 46, continues. “But my daughter wins everything in this house.”
He says that at first he caved when Vivian, 11, whom he shares with his ex Gisele Bündchen, asked for kittens last year. (He also shares son Benjamin, 14, with Bündchen, and is dad to Jack, 16, whom he shares with Bridget Moynahan.)
They ended up adopting two Siamese kittens
“Sadly one of them passed away from a virus,” he says. But when they went to adopt another, they couldn’t resist getting two more.
“I promised her one, now we have three,” he says with a laugh.
Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images; Tom Brady Instagram Tom Brady posts two of his kittens on Instagram© Provided by People
It’s not the first time Brady has shown that he’s a secret softie when it comes to animals.
The former quarterback, who was just inducted into the New England Patriots Hall of Fame, and also just released a funny new ad for his collaboration with Hertz, has also spent time as a volunteer at the Humane Society of Tampa Bay.
In a 2023 Instagram post praising the football star for his dedication to his daughter and her love of animals, Ashley Bragg Ryan, wife of Buccaneers player and Brady’s former teammate Logan Ryan, said Brady “bonded with his kids over naming puppies and bottle feeding kittens” while volunteering at a shelter.
“It wasn’t about publicity, fundraising or recognition,” she wrote. “It was about being a human being.”