Monica Monteiro, Gisele Bündchen’s former agent: ‘I became a millionaire, but I deserved it’

“What seemed impossible happened!” began a report published on a celebrity website in April 2006. The news that followed detailed the end of the professional partnership between top model Gisele Bündchen, at the height of her career, and his agent, Monica Monteiro.

It was really surprising. Worthy of exclamation. Monica was a kind of Marlene Mattos (without the sadistic and controlling part) of the most famous model in the world, to whom she dedicated 12 of her 58 years of life. Gisele had been under her care in São Paulo since 1994, when she was 14 years old and had decided to abandon her dream of being a volleyball player in a small town in Rio Grande do Sul to try, alone, to make a living in the competitive world of fashion.

The comparison, she says, doesn’t make much sense, “because I wasn’t in charge of Gisele, she always had the final say in everything.” But the two MMs have in common the fact that they transformed young women, coincidentally from Rio Grande do Sul, beautiful and inexperienced, into super professionals, respected and admired around the world, true money-making machines.

Not to mention the intimacy they had with their agents. If Marlene said in the Globoplay documentary that she wouldn’t let go of Xuxa even during a gynecological appointment, Monica isn’t far behind. But, in this case, it was Gisele who asked the businesswoman to accompany her. And he insisted that he enter the room with her.

The top, still at the beginning of her career, was “about 16, 17 years old”, was dating and felt that her first sex was about to happen. She wanted to know how to avoid pregnancy. “What do I do, Monica?” she asked. “She wasn’t with her parents here, and I had promised Valdir, her father, that I would be like a mother to her in São Paulo. And I was. A great mother, as well as a friend”, she says.

It was with the agent that Gisele learned to photograph (“she was funny and spontaneous with everyone, but she was stuck in front of the cameras”). He also improved his stride on the catwalk with his legs crossing in front of him, almost like the gait of a horse, later imitated by many people who had already had years of experience. The businesswoman was once again by her side when the top experienced what may have been one of the first signs that her mental health was not well, on a trip to Barcelona in 2003.

Monica witnessed the model’s first date with Leonardo DiCaprio, in a nightclub in New York; She traveled half the world with her, closed million-dollar contracts in Brazil. In the interview below, the agent, married for 31 years and mother of two daughters, aged 22 and 27, talks about the professional break with Gisele, says that today she works for herself, “without worrying about money, much more about not losing contacts”, and remembers stories lived alongside the biggest model in the world over more than a decade.

What was your reaction when you received the news that you would no longer take care of Gisele’s career in 2006?

I was upset. Definitely, right? IMG, a New York-based agency, closed its branch in Brazil and fired me. I was an employee, I had no way of bossing the boss. Gisele, then, chose to exchange me for her twin sister, she wanted Patricia [Bündchen] represented it with clients in Brazil.

Were you hurt because you weren’t supported in some way by her in managing your career?

I would like to continue in the company she set up with her sisters. I could collaborate. It could have been turned off little by little, after so long. I am one of the few professionals in Brazil who has entered the international market. I have recognition, all the agencies in the world know who I was, that I was with her since I was a teenager. Gisele lived in my house, I was like a mother to her. But I’m grateful and I adore her to this day.

How was the beginning of your career?

Look, several names have been mentioned, but the person who discovered Gisele was Ms. Vânia, the mother, who unfortunately died recently. She heard about an Elite tryout in Rio Grande do Sul and went to volleyball to take the test. Dona Vânia ran there and said: “Come on, it’s now”.

And Gisele went straight from volleyball?

He was. She was wearing her playing shorts, all sweaty and disheveled, she didn’t even want to go. But her mother insisted and she went. When she arrived at the tryouts, she had a lot of girls dressed up, with makeup on. She wanted to leave. But she ended up being the chosen one. Look at this thing.

Was it from then on that you started taking care of her?

Yes. I worked at Elite, in São Paulo, I took care of the “new faces” [modelos iniciantes]. Then a bus arrived with about 60 girls from all over Brazil for the Look of the Year national final, only two stayed. One was Gisele. She was 14 years old and my job was to teach her how to do tests and selections for jobs, how to parade, take photos, teach her a little about what the market was like. Zeca de Abreu also helped a lot at the beginning.

Someone from the family came along when she moveddor at 14 years old for São Paulo?

Seu Valdir, her father, came to see where she was going to live, the models’ apartment, where she was going to study, he came to do a general check. And then I explained that I would take care of her, I would be Gisele’s mother in São Paulo. And that, if he had any questions, he could call me. I gave my home phone number, because I didn’t have a cell phone. I think this helped to strengthen relationships, to give trust.

How did her career start?

Difficult. She was very shy in front of the camera. Among people, she was super funny, a spectacle. Wow, it took eight months to get the first job. I took it to Capricho, Atrevida and other teenage magazines. She didn’t take anything. Then I said: “Hey, Gisele, why aren’t you like that, like that, when you’re with the client? You have to show what you are like, that you’re the height, you have the body, you have everything you need and convince that it will get the job done.” Little by little she started taking on some jobs, she started to have more self-esteem. Gisele hated her hair.

It’s not possible.

Well, do you believe it? That hair, which is everyone’s dream, she didn’t like. Teenagers never like their best, right? I made her understand that she had wonderful hair, I took her for treatment with Wanderley [Nunes] and, little by little, she began to take off, feeling beautiful and safe. But I was really proud on the day we went to Cláudia magazine.

Why?

Because I was going there with another model. Gisele was around 16 years old at that time, the magazine was not for teenagers. There was no reason to go. She would be the daughter of the reader and the woman who appears in the pages of the magazine, who is sexy, an adult woman. I said that, and she insisted on accompanying me. When we got there, the publisher said exactly the same thing. Then she said: “Then do a rehearsal with mother and daughter, I’m the daughter.” I looked and thought: “That’s Gisele!” She did the test and it looked beautiful.

What is Gisele’s biggest difference?

The catwalk. She always loved the catwalk, and she paraded like no one else. She changed her stance, the way she stepped, the way she moved her arms and hands. Gisele started to walk steadily, crossing her legs a little, what we call a “horse stride”. All the supermodels started imitating it. And it became a trend. Besides, she knew exactly how to look at photographers, where to stop, what is the best light, the best angle. So, she became a reference in the fashion world. That’s why she reigned and still reigns today, in my opinion.

She recently made it public that she suffered from anxiety and panic syndrome for a few years. Did you know that? Have you witnessed a crisis?

We traveled a lot by plane and once she said she had palpitations and couldn’t relax. We talked about these things among ourselves, it wasn’t a topic like it is today. But the worst part was on a trip to Barcelona, ​​for a campaign for the [sabonete] Lux. It was bad there.

What there was?

We stayed in a wonderful hotel, quite tall. She was in a presidential suite, on the top floor, and it had one of those windows that didn’t open. Gisele was a little panicked, she didn’t want to be in a closed, high place. That was the first time I felt she was strange like that… And she asked her sister to go with her, she was… You know, she wasn’t very calm. So she wanted to go to a room on a lower floor, and there was only a standard apartment. “No problem. I want to be under, I want to open the window, I want air.” It was a symptom that she was… Almost like that, right? She was afraid of heights, afraid of planes, a little panic. Then she went back to New York, started meditating, eating more regularly, tried to start having time for herself, you know? To do things more calmly.

You lived together for 12 years, traveled a lot. What was that life like?

It was crazy, everyone rolled out the red carpet for her. There was no such thing as a bad table in a restaurant, in nightclubs it was always in a box, people went crazy when they saw it, men sent flowers. Leonardo DiCaprio sent a bouquet after a fashion show in Milan.

That’s when they started dating [entre idas e vindas, os dois ficaram juntos por cinco anos]?

No. One day we were in New York and she said: “Let’s go with me to a club and I want to introduce you to Leonardo.” I asked: “What Leonardo?” She said, “DiCaprio.” The two were going to meet, he went to New York after her. It was the first time they were going out together. “I want you to check it out to see what you think”, Gisele said. I felt a bit like an aunty going to the club with her, but I went. And he arrived, I remember he was wearing a cap, and it was a blast. Leo immediately kissed her on the cheek when we were on the dance floor.

And, after all, did you like him?

No, because he left me in a vacuum when I went to greet him with a kiss on the cheek (laughs). We are Brazilian; Go there and put your face on it, right? He distanced himself, like, I’m not going to kiss you, you know? Then I remember that I went to Gisele, I said: “Oh, I didn’t like it, I found him unfriendly”.

What did she respond?

She said, “Ah, stop being silly.” We had a laugh.

Who else did you see hitting on her?

Oh, a lot of people. She was the greatest model in the world, right? Let’s not forget. Jennifer Lopez’s first husband, the rap singer, for example. What’s his name again? Puff Daddy. Wow, he was inviting Gisele to go clubbing straight after the fashion shows. And we weren’t party people. Then, he would take it, arrive, play charm and say: “Ah, I want you to go to the party in such and such a place, show up there.” Wherever she went was this hubbub.

Didn’t you know these people?

I know the fashion people, I even know who they are, but I don’t remember their names. There was another famous rapper, of course I don’t remember his name, who we met once in a restaurant in New York. When we passed his table, he came to talk to her. I asked: “Wow, Gisele, that huge necklace of his, is that real gold?” She laughed and said, “Oh, Monica, I love you.” She’s cool, right? She is a very nice person. She always was.

Vyou became a millionaire working with the Gisele? He can stop working if you want?

Yes. In this case, I stopped. Now I work more so as not to be completely doing nothing, so as not to lose contacts. But she also gained a lot working with me, you know? I closed very important contracts that gave her a lot of money. And for me too, of course. Because I worked well. And I always loved Gisele. I still love her to this day, I like her as if she were a daughter, I wish I had more contact.