Tom brady never thought he'd be a cat dad — now he has 3 of them (exclusive)

He's been called the GOAT — now he's the ABCD. (America's Biggest Cad Dad.) Okay, so maybe he's not _quite _ready to clinch that title, but Tom Brady says he is surprised

that he became a cat dad in the first place. Now he has three. "They're fun. And they're pretty cute," he tells PEOPLE of the little guys. "I never thought I'd

have a cat in my life," Brady, 46, continues. "But my daughter wins everything in this house." He says that at first he caved when Vivian, 11, whom he shares with his ex

Gisele Bündchen, asked for kittens last year. (He also shares son Benjamin, 14, with Bündchen, and is dad to Jack, 16, whom he shares with Bridget Moynahan.) They ended up adopting two

Siamese kittens "Sadly one of them passed away from a virus," he says. But when they went to adopt another, they couldn't resist getting two more. "I promised her one,

now we have three," he says with a laugh. NEVER MISS A STORY — SIGN UP FOR PEOPLE'S FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER TO STAY UP-TO-DATE ON THE BEST OF WHAT PEOPLE HAS TO OFFER, FROM JUICY

CELEBRITY NEWS TO COMPELLING HUMAN INTEREST STORIES. It's not the first time Brady has shown that he's a secret softie when it comes to animals. The former quarterback, who was

just inducted into the New England Patriots Hall of Fame, and also just released a funny new ad for his collaboration with Hertz, has also spent time as a volunteer at the Humane Society of

Tampa Bay. In a 2023 Instagram post praising the football star for his dedication to his daughter and her love of animals, Ashley Bragg Ryan, wife of Buccaneers player and Brady's

former teammate Logan Ryan, said Brady "bonded with his kids over naming puppies and bottle feeding kittens" while volunteering at a shelter. "It wasn't about publicity,

fundraising or recognition," she wrote. "It was about being a human being."