Gisele Bündchen: Snapshot

Gisele Bündchen: Five Fun Facts

1. In 2000, Gisele Bündchen was dubbed the "Boobs from Brazil" by tabloids who went as far as to blame her for the 36,000 breast enhancement surgeries performed that year in Brazil.
2. Gisele Bündchen likes popping zits. "I love squeezing them. I have these big mirrors in my house so even if I don't have one, I look for one to squeeze," she told Time in 2004. "I should be a facialist."
3. Gisele Bündchen's look wasn't always in fashion. When she moved to New York during the ''heroin chic'' era, she refused clients' demands to get a nose job.
4. When Gisele Bündchen signed her modeling contract with International Management Company, reports circulated that it included a no-marriage clause. "Seriously, like I'm going to give up my life and sign a contract that says I cannot be married and have children? Puh-leeze," Bündchen told the New York Daily News in 2004. "That's the craziest thing I ever heard!"
5. After Gisele Bündchen announced that she would never pose topless, a group of runway photographers launched the "Free the Gisele Two" campaign.

Gisele Bündchen: Biography

1994

A Brazilian Discovery

Bündchen, 14, is spotted by an Elite Modeling agent in a São Paulo McDonald's. "They asked if I wanted to be a model, and I was like, 'Forget it,'" she tells New York's Daily News in 2004. "But in Brazil, people struggle, so I thought, 'You know what? I should try this.'" She moves to New York in 1997, where she catches the eye of top photographers Mario Testino and Steven Meisel, who coax magazines and designers to take a chance on the teenager. "I was mesmerized by her," Testino tells PEOPLE.

1999

June

Bringing Sexy Back

Bündchen single-handedly ends the "heroin chic" era brought in by Kate Moss when fashion industry's bible, Vogue, puts her on its cover. The magazine declares the "Return of the Sexy Model." The Brazilian import is named Vogue/VH1 Model of the Year (right) and by 2001, graces nine Vogue covers.

2000

Summer

Bagging the Unattainable Leo

Bündchen frolics on the shores of Malibu with actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The two remain coy about their relationship. "I don't talk about my private life," she tells New York's Daily News. "The only thing I have to say is that I so appreciate [Leo]." They endure a rocky, nearly six-year, on-again, off-again relationship before calling it quits (for good) in November 2005.

Read More on Gisele Bündchen's Life

Gisele Bündchen: Special Feature