♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, tom and gisele. constitute fairytale romance be over? >> a lot of the things that are really important in your life, like your kids and your wife, things have always taken a back seat to football. i think that's just how it's gone for me. >> the supermodel and the super bowl champ. were there signs of trouble in paradise? plus funny ladies. >> i'm mexican so i think mexicans are at the top because we have the best food. >> three comediennes breaking barriers in the entertainment world with their headlining specials. >> latinos, we are not a monolith, right? so we have different communities, we have different likes, we have different everything. >> how their heritage influences their work.

and why comedy is more essential than ever. >> we have had to laugh through all of our traumas. that is part of who we are culturally. and -- ♪ in the middle of the night ♪ >> taylor swift. why news from the "ready for it" singer has fans more than ready. age is just a number. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. ♪♪ whenever heartburn strikes get fast relief with tums. it's time to love food back. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums ♪

♪

happy friday. thanks for joining us. we begin tonight with reports that one of the most famous and glamorous couples in the world may have hit a rough patch. neither tom brady nor gisele bundchen are confirming the headlines, but fans can't stop talking about the state of their union. we take a look back at the fabled romance between the supermodel and the nfl quarterback. they're the homecoming king and queen of the met ball. tom brady, gisele bundchen, bi bigger than life. the a-list power couple who appeared to have it all. wealth, fame, wedded bliss. she among the most famous and photographed supermodels in the world, gracing the covers of over 1,200 magazines. starring in ads for luxurious companies like dolce & gabbana. he, the star quarterback.

many call him the greatest of all-time. winning seven super bowls for the patriots and the bucs. inspiring fans with his drive to win and his longevity in a physically brutal sport. the couple wed in 2009 and had two kids. brady also has a son from his previous relationship with actress bridget moynihan. but now their marriage could be on the rocks. the "new york post" reporting the nfl great and the supermodel are hiring divorce attorneys amidst headlines hinting of turmoil. abc has not independently confirmed this report. >> going to a divorce lawyer doesn't necessarily mean your marriage is ending. but at least they'll know what is ahead of them if they choose to go this route. >> reporter: the 45-year-old quarterback for the tampa bay buccaneers made waves when he announced on instagram he was retiring from the sport in february, writing, "i am not going to make that competitive commitment any more. i have loves my nfl career, and now it's time to focus my time and energy on other things." then, just six weeks later,

abruptly changed course. unretiring. >> a lot of things are really important in your lifelike your kids and wife. things that have always taken a back seat to football. i think that's just how it's gone for me. >> reporter: the decision one his wife was reportedly not happy about. last month gisele telling "elle" magazine she struggles, saying "obviously i have my concerns, this is a very violent sport and i have my children, and i would like him to be more present. i have definitely had those conversations with him over and over again." in august, tom noticeably absent from preseason games, taking an unusual 11-day hiatus to spend time with his family. >> it's all personal, everyone's got different situations they're dealing with. we all have really unique challenges to our life. >> reporter: since the buccaneers' regular season began, gisele, normally a fixture at many of her husband's games, notably absent. in the past, brady's family has always been front and center at his games. >> i love bringing my kids to

training camp, i love bringing them in the locker room after the game, carrying my pads in. at gdifferent times they say, "s this the super bowl?" "no, it's week nine." >> reporter: in an episode of his podcast "let's go" earlier this year, he talked about the toll it was taking on his wife. >> my wife is my biggest supporter. it pains her to see me get hit. >> reporter: brady opened up to "gma's" michael strahan about the sacrifices gisele made for his football career. >> a lot of times things revolve around me in the house. football's a schedule. i'm here for this. you know in a lot of ways i'm absent in a way. i lose track of my responsibilities in the house. i think she carries the burden. >> reporter: in brady's 2018 facebook series "tom versus time," he discusses his fanatical commitment to preparation. >> i don't need exterior motivations. the ones that i have inside of me are enough. >> reporter: he also gave a rare glimpse into his family life. >> i think they know that dad

works hard, and he makes a big commitment, and dad loves them deeply, and dad's trying to do the best that i can for my family. >> reporter: though the true cause of rumored troubles is unknown, the couple has previously spoken out about their family's priorities with gisele taking a deliberate step back from modeling to focus on her family and support her husband's nfl career. this is gisele talking to abc news in 2018. >> i just wanted to be with my kids. when i thought about something, i thought about my kids. it was like, i want to be with them, you know? i -- i couldn't see anything more important than being there for them. to be there for my husband. >> reporter: at the time the brazilian supermodel and the all-american football star started dating 15 years ago, they were already individually multimillionaire. over their 13-year marriage, their wealth is believed to have tipped into the hundreds of millions. now possibly laying the ground work for a complicated and drawn-out division of marital assets. >> usually the asset that we

fight most about is the primary marital residence. who has to leave the house? the parties just recently sold their new york city apartment, so they have to have a lot of liquid assets. >> reporter: together they have four known properties, including their most recent acquisition, the $17 million mansion, still under construction, on exclusive indian creek island in miami beach with ivanka trump and jared kushner as nearby neighbors. >> when these two were married, her career was at its height. tom, though he thought his career was at its height, became the goat and he started to earn more and more. >> reporter: there are clues about their future goals with tom signing a 10-year, $375 million deal with fox sports. and gisele telling "elle" magazine, "i have a huge list of things i have to do, that i want to do. at 42, i feel more connected with my purpose." no matter what happens, tom brady is expected back on the

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♪ you know, bringing the funny is a very serious and difficult business. especially when it comes to opening doors that have long been closed to women of color. we go behind the scenes with three latina comediennes who

share their struggles and their triumphs in the entertainment industries. here's abc's mireya villarreal. ♪ >> this is my first time being at the laugh factory here in hollywood. i would imagine you guys have been here plenty of times. >> yes. >> last time i was here, i was running a five-minute set to try to do a late-night set for tv, which i did not get. it was a really fun time. >> i started doing stand-up labor day 2003. >> wow. >> i remember that. >> you remember? >> i started on labor day. >> i misunderstood the assignment. i was like, oh, we got to work on labor day. either you're working or you have a baby, right? >> reporter: for krystle low, anjelajah, and christina, our conversation was frank and funny. >> for me this feels like a girl gang right now. a brown girl bagang, if i can.

how often are you guys together? can you be together in the same place? >> i mean, yeah. i mean, does it not work that way? >> it doesn't work that way at all. >> there's always this comparison thing when it comes to women. it's always been like that. i'm always speaking their names because melissa villasenor, jenna brion are the only other two. we're the only touring headliners, you know what i mean? >> reporter: headlining specials getting laughs from cristela in "middle classy" on netflix. >> i grew up in a mixed status family. that means half of us were documented, half of us were undocumented, and we're not telling you which one's which. >> reporter: "in fighting words" on hbo max. >> i'm half puerto rican, half dominican. i didn't know i was half dominican until i got older.

they broke it to me like it was bad news. >> reporter: "not fancy" on netflix. >> i'm mexican. i think mexicans are on the top because we have the best food. we're not even, like, the best in the latino foods. like, we jumped into regular food category. >> reporter: their comedy is rooted in their own stories, their own experiences as latinas. >> how important is it to make sure that you guys, on every set that you do, every show, you have to weave in your roots? >> i think it's we write from real life. >> it's safer now. if i write about my personal life, that's less dangerous than me writing a show about latinos and then people coming for me saying, well, why, why, why this person don't look like that! i stay in my safe space where it's, all i can tell you is that's what my grandmother looked like. and i'm not going to make her rita moreno to make you happy because my grandmother was black. >> we all write what we know. my family came from mexico.

i'm first-gen. my experience is different from your experience. my experience is different from your experience. but that's what makes it fun. >> reporter: angela tackling the diversity of the latino community in this comedic bit. >> there is a hierarchy in the latino culture. we don't talk about it, but it's there. there's all kinds of different latinos, right? mexican, puerto rican, salvadorian, cuban, colombian. my husband, he's broopuerto ric. he thinks puerto rico is at the top because they have j. lo. all right, team puerto rico, 1 point. >> it's interesting you bring up the hierarchy. what i love about your comedy, the ability to take something like that that is very clearly a passionate point for somebody and make it funny. how are you able to do that? >> so when i was writing that bit, all i knew was my culture and my culture was mexican-american. we didn't speak spanish at home,

but we're very proud of our culture. then i meet a puerto rican who's very east coast, he's very different. he's tropical. instead of calling people latinos, he calls them spanish "spanish people." he came to the house, first met my family. my family is asking him, so, like what's the difference between mexican food and puerto rican food? and he goes, "it's more like, high quality." >> oh! >> wow. >> and you married him? >> yes! so that's how i started learning, like, oh -- we're different. like, there's a lot of differences between all the different latinos. p>> latinos, we are not a monolith, right? we have different communities. we have different likes. we have different everything. and the industry doesn't see it like that. we're years behind in the entertainment industry, where we have to play catch-up to so many. >> reporter: cristela wrote and

produced her own sitcom in 2014. the show was canceled after one season despite critical praise. >> can i toss this in before you empty that? oh my god, i am so sorry. obviously you're not the cleaning crew. can you validate me? >> i think you've been validated enough. >> reporter: the fact that i was the first latina to write and produce a sitcom in 2014 is trash. there have been too many before me. when i pitch the show they're like, "you can't write the show by yourself, we need to partner you up with a white guy." people that i worked with hadn't dealt with somebody in my position. i was known as difficult to work with. >> uh-huh. >> wait, wait, wait, wait -- when someone says, especially about women, she's "difficult to work with." what does that mean? >> i mean, i always think that

means that they stand up for themselves, that they're probably -- i mean, i -- i always take it with a grain of salt. >> yeah. >> especially when it comes to people of color, black people in this business. i'm like, that means she stood up for herself. >> any topic off limits for you guys? >> there are certain things that are off limits for me, but i don't have a right to tell anybody else that that's not their right. >> reporter: iva sometimes using comedy to bring up uncomfortable but important issues. >> my family was super religious, anti-abortion. until i got pregnant from a black dude. then they became pro-abortion in the name of jesus. they were like, "he'll forgive you." too much truth for you tonight? >> why does that kind of comedy work, to where you kind of cringe and you laugh at the same time? like, it's a little bit of both. you know? >> it's rooted in truth.

>> it's truth. >> yeah. >> reporter: during a year of the tragic uvalde shooting, the growing number of migrants at the border, the perpetual purgatory daca recipients are living in -- their comedy, a treatment for so many. >> why does it feel like now more than ever, comedy is essential? >> we have had to laugh through all of our traumas. that is part of who we are culturally. we either have to laugh or we cry. and that is, you know -- the way that we process our pain sometimes. >> yeah, i feel like sometimes we have to break up what's happening. like, there's this powerful stream, this river of water just flooding with all the trauma, all the news, this shooting, this -- all the bad stuff just going down. and you just get rushed away with it if you let it. and i feel like sometimes the joke is that big log that falls right in the middle of the. it kind of breaks it up a little

bit. >> reporter: back in june cristela brought the women together to help raise money for the victims of the uvalde mass shooting. >> uvalde shooting, i wanted a fund-raiser because it was hours where i grew up. also to represent that you can do what you want, but we will always move past it. we are strong. and with pain comes joy. >> so cristela, i saw her and i saw athea, i i'd not seen her before when she started talking, we are the tias now. >> we are the tias. >> that could be the name of the girl game. >> "we are the tias." >> thank you for letting me be part of the tias. ♪ >> our thanks to mireya.

up next, taylor swift. the big reechlt about her upcoming album. why are fans so ready for it? ♪ the things we do baby ♪ ♪ mm in the middle of the night ♪ alright, the reason why your dishes aren't as clean as you'd like... isn't your dishwasher, it's the detergent. i recommend cascade platinum and a new routine. let's watch it work! only cascade uses dawn... as a built-in pre-rinse system. it rehydrates dried on food... ...lifts it off... ...and breaks it down. for sparkling clean dishes the first time. ok, who wants to start? just scrape... load... and we're done! cascade platinum. scrape, load, done. ♪♪ whenever heartburn strikes get fast relief with tums. it's time to love food back. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums ♪

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instagram post. >> and i happened upon the phrase "lavender haze" when i was watching "mad men." i looked it up because it sounded cool. turns out it's a common phrase used in the '50s where they would just describe being in love. >> the other song titles include "anti-hero," "snow on the beach," a collab with lon that del ray, midnight rain, and karma. the new record drops october 21st. and that's "nightline." you can watch all our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here next week. thanks for staying up with us. good night, america. have a great weekend.