Gisele Bündchen reconnects with Victoria's Secret as supermodel after 16-year break

Gisele Bündchen is back in action and she's reconnecting with Victoria's Secret Angels - Naomi Campbell, Adriana Lima, and Candice Swanepoel.

The ladies have joined together for Victoria's Secret's new "Icon" campaign, which was launched on Wednesday. Emily Ratajkowski, Hailey Bieber, Adut Akech, Paloma Elsesser, and Sui He will join the lingerie brand's recognisable stars.

Bündchen hung up her angel wings in 2007, after contracting with the business as a teenager.

Bündchen claimed in her 2018 memoir that she was overjoyed to obtain a business agreement with Victoria's Secret as a 19-year-old.

"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. Give me a tail, a cape, wings — please, anything to cover me up a little!" the 43-year-old joked.

In 2006, when her employment with the lingerie company was up for renewal, she made the decision she didn't want to continue.

"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 explained.

In a May 2022 interview with British Vogue, Bündchen also discussed her experience as an Angel.

"I always made sure that my back was covered because it just made me uncomfortable walking on a runway with my butt hanging out, from looking from down, up," Bündchen admitted. "I was like, 'That's not gonna happen.' But I always had fun on the shows. It was always like a production, there was always someone singing, there was always something happening. It was a fun experience."

Bündchen took a break from her profession when her kids were little, but now that they're older - Benjamin, 13, and Vivian, 10 - she says she wishes them to know that their mother has her own life goals.

Her return to modelling, which includes campaigns for Louis Vuitton and Jimmy Choo, coincides with her divorce from Tom Brady.

"I have my own dreams," she told Vanity Fair in March. "You want to show [your children] that, in life, you have to find real fulfillment, not living something that you’re not."

Bundchen posted a video of herself modelling the lingerie on Instagram on Wednesday, causing the company to respond, "We missed you, Gisele! "Good to see you back!"