People were shocked when Gisele Bündchen left Victoria’s Secret in 2006. The model recently opened up in her book about why she decided to make the change, even though the company was paying around 80 percent of her total income.
“For the first five years, I felt comfortable modeling in lingerie, but as time went on, I felt less and less at ease being photographed walking the runway wearing just a bikini or a thong,” she said, according to Cosmopolitan. “Give me a tail, a cape, wings—please, anything to cover me up a little!”
The model signed with VS when she was just 19 and she was one of the first high-fashion models to cross over to the catalog brand. Bündchen was exhausted from all the store openings, commercial shoots, and travel by the time she was supposed to resign her contract in 2006.
“I was certainly grateful for the opportunity and the financial security the company had given me, but I was at a different place in my life, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue working there,” she wrote in her book.
But her final decision was a little unconventional.
“I crumpled up two small pieces of paper [with the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’ on them] and placed them inside an empty teacup,” she explained according to Cosmo; “I closed my eyes and set an intention: whatever piece of paper I chose would be for my highest and best self and be the right decision.”
She pulled “no” and decided that her time with VS was over. She writes she doesn’t regret it.
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