January 29, 2008 should have been a quiet news day before Super Bowl XLII. Instead, a Mexican television reporter walked into Media Day at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, wearing a white wedding dress and a veil. She had one question for Tom Brady, and it had nothing to do with football. The moment became one of the wildest clips in Super Bowl history. What almost nobody expected was the story that came after it — a story that ended with handcuffs, a Florida detention center, and a $160 million fraud case.
The Wedding Dress That Stopped Media Day
Inés Gómez Mont, then a reporter for TV Azteca, arrived at the crowded media session in a short white bridal gown, sheer stockings, and tall red heels. Roughly 4,000 media members were packed into the stadium that day. Gómez Mont pushed through the crowd toward Brady and shouted her proposal on live television.
“Tom, I’m in love with you! Will you marry me, please?”
The room reacted the way a Super Bowl media room reacts to anything loud and unexpected. Cameras turned. Reporters followed her. Brady, who was preparing for the biggest game of his career, stayed calm.
Brady’s Calm Reply
Brady did not ignore her. He played along for a second, then gave an answer that became the soundbite of the day.
“I’m a one-woman man.”
He also told her she was beautiful and that anyone who married her would be a lucky man, according to reports at the time. Brady was dating Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen in early 2008. The couple had started seeing each other in 2007 and were photographed together throughout the year. Brady also had a young son with actress Bridget Moynahan, which added another layer of attention to the moment.
Later in the day, Gómez Mont took her proposal to the other quarterback in the building. She changed into a “Marry Me Manning” shirt and asked Eli Manning the same question. Manning was polite, but he did not say yes either.
The Football That Followed the Wedding Dress
The Patriots entered Super Bowl XLII at 18-0, chasing the first perfect season in NFL history. The New York Giants were heavy underdogs. New England lost 17-14, and the perfect season ended in one of the biggest upsets the league has ever seen. Brady’s week had started with a wedding proposal from a stranger in a bridal gown and ended with a loss that still gets replayed every February.
Gómez Mont’s proposal became a viral clip, but it was not a career-ending stunt. She kept working in Mexican television, appearing on shows for TV Azteca and Televisa. For more than a decade, the wedding dress moment stayed in the “funny Super Bowl moments” folder.
What Happened to Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen
Brady and Bündchen got engaged in January 2009 and married the following month in an intimate ceremony in Santa Monica, California. Bündchen wore a fitted ivory lace strapless gown by Dolce & Gabbana with a trumpet skirt and a floor-length veil.
Brady went on to win seven Super Bowl rings in total, a number that made the “one-woman man” line age well in sports terms. The couple later divorced, but the 2008 proposal clip never faded from the internet.
The Fraud Case That Changed Everything
September 2021 is when the afterstory turned serious. A federal judge in Mexico issued arrest warrants for Gómez Mont and her husband, lawyer Víctor Manuel Álvarez Puga. Mexican prosecutors accuse the couple of running a network of shell companies, fake invoices, and sham contracts to pull money from Mexico’s Interior Ministry and launder it.
Investigators put the alleged amount at roughly 2.95 billion pesos, which converts to about $146 million to $160 million depending on the exchange rate used in reports. Álvarez Puga has been called the “King of the Invoice Mills” and is accused of leading a network that involved politicians, former officials, lawyers, business people, and celebrities.
The couple left Mexico with their family in September 2021, shortly after the warrants were issued. Gómez Mont posted a statement to her 2.5 million Instagram followers denying everything.
“To be clear, I’ve never stolen a weight. I haven’t received any money from those contracts, let alone I’ve never seen or had 3 billion pesos in my life. I’m a TV host and a full time mom. And under no concept do I belong to organized crime.”
She also wrote that the accusations made her feel placed on the same level as a drug dealer or terrorist, and called it an injustice.
The Husband’s Arrest and the Years on the Run
Álvarez Puga was detained by ICE in Miami in September 2025 over immigration irregularities. He was later released on bond, and his current location has not been made public. Mexican authorities kept pushing for the couple’s detention. The Attorney General’s Office said it formally asked the United States for provisional detention for extradition purposes in September 2025.
Interpol reportedly withdrew its red notices against the couple in September 2026, but the arrest warrants in Mexico stayed active. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum criticized the Interpol decision and said her government would keep seeking extradition.
ICE Arrests Gómez Mont in Miami
Friday, October 30, 2026, is the date ICE took Gómez Mont into custody in Miami. Page Six reported that she was photographed in handcuffs, wearing a white shirt, a blue skirt, and white sneakers, escorted by two ICE agents. U.S. authorities said her detention was tied to an expired visa, not a direct extradition order.
She was taken to the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, about 55 kilometers north of Miami. Her legal team filed a habeas corpus petition to challenge the detention. A federal judge rejected her emergency request to block a transfer out of South Florida, but ordered the government to explain why the petition should not be granted.
Gómez Mont now faces two separate legal tracks at the same time: U.S. immigration detention and Mexico’s extradition request.
You May Also Like
View all articles about
Where the Two Paths Stand
Gómez Mont was 43 years old at the time of her arrest. Mexican prosecutors have three active arrest warrants against her and say she will be detained if she arrives in Mexico. She has maintained her innocence since 2021.
“I repeat and stand by it: I am innocent, and this is an injustice. They want to shut me up, but I will continue to raise my voice with all my might.”
Brady, meanwhile, has stayed out of the case entirely. The man who once laughed off a wedding proposal at the Super Bowl has never publicly commented on the arrest. The clip from January 29, 2008 still exists online, but it now sits next to a very different set of headlines.
Also Read: Mehdi Hasan Doubts Trump’s $3.8 Billion Israel Aid Claim: ‘I’ll Believe This When I See It’
The wedding dress moment took less than a minute. The case built around it has taken five years, two countries, and a detention center in Florida. For readers who remember the original clip, the full story is worth reading from the first sentence to the last.
Leave a Reply