Tom Brady has revealed that his dog Junie is a clone of his late pet Lua, who died in 2023.
The former superstar quarterback-turned-sports commentator shared the news on Tuesday about his new pitbull mix being a clone of Lua, who was adopted in 2014 by Brady and his then-wife, Gisele Bündchen. Lua passed away a year after the couple’s divorce was finalized in 2022.
Texas-based biotech startup, Colossal Biosciences, was behind the procedure, Brady said.
Brady is an investor in the company, which also announced on Tuesday its acquisition of Viagen Pets & Equine — the world’s leading animal cloning firm, known for creating doubles of Paris Hilton’s dog Diamond and Barbra Streisand’s pup Samantha.
“I love my animals,” Brady said in a statement obtained by the New York Daily News on Tuesday. “They mean the world to me and my family.”
The 48-year-old, seven-time Super Bowl champ said he worked with Colossal to leverage their “non-invasive cloning technology through a simple blood draw” prior to elderly Lua’s passing.
“In a few short months, Colossal gave my family a second chance with a clone of our beloved dog,” Brady continued. “I am excited how Colossal and Viagen’s tech together can help both families losing their beloved pets while helping to save endangered species.”
Scientists at Colossal, which describes itself as “the world’s de-extinction company,” announced in April that it had “successfully restored” the dire wolf — a species of wolf that died out some 12,500 years ago — through its cloning and gene-editing technology.
