Gisele Bündchen revealed her proudest moments as a model ― and it’s not what you’d expect.

“One of the big moments for me was when I arrived in São Paulo,” the cookbook author told WSJ. magazine in an interview published Monday. “I was 13 years old, it was the beginning of my career and I didn’t know anyone in São Paulo. I was leaving a village of 10,000.”

“When I got there, my wallet was gone,” Bündchen explained. “This woman saw me crying and she gave me two quarters, and I called my dad from a payphone. He was like, ‘Gisele, you can come home.’”

The model made a choice that would stay with her forever ― and help her face what was to come in her career.

“At that moment, I decided I’m not going to go back home just because somebody stole my wallet,” she said. “When I finally got to [the models’ house in São Paulo that day], I felt so capable.”

“That was the biggest first thing that happened because in the fashion career, people used to mistreat you, especially when you started,” the 43-year-old added. “Not everyone was kind, let’s put it that way. But I got some calluses from that first experience, it gave me a lot of strength for what was to come.”

While Bündchen shot to fame on the runway and spent over a decade and a half as the world’s highest-paid model, she recently opened up about why modeling isn’t as “comfortable” for her anymore.

“Being a model is not really an extension of me ... It’s being an actress in a silent movie,” she told Vanity Fair in an interview last year.

“I don’t want to be a character in anybody else’s movie,” Bündchen added. “And when I do that, it doesn’t feel as comfortable for me anymore.”