Gabrielle Union reveals she was “broken into pieces” after Dwyane Wade admitted he conceived a baby with another woman.
In her new memoir “You Got Anything Stronger,” Union reveals how she and Wade were “not in a good place” when the baby was conceived but after she learned the truth, she was in a “much better one.”
“To say I was devastated is to pick a word on a low shelf for convenience. There are people — strangers who I will never meet — who have been upset that I have not previously talked about that trauma,” she writes.
“I have not had words, and even after untold amounts of therapy I am not sure I have them now. But truth matters.”
The star dated Wade in 2008, and he fathered his now-7-year-old son, Xavier, in 2013, while he and Union were on a break.
The retired Miami Heat player was also a father to Zaire, 19, and Zaya, 14, as well as guardian to his nephew, Dahveon, 19. Eventually, Wade and the actress married in 2014 and attempted to have their own children, but Union struggled with miscarriages.
Union, 48, who previously revealed her diagnosis with adenomyosis, spoke about her multiple miscarriages over the years — which led her to surrogacy.
Union recalled being informed by her doctor Kelly Baek back in 2016 how her best chance of having a healthy baby of her own would be through surrogacy.
“I was not ready to do that,” she wrote in the piece. “I wanted the experience of being pregnant. To watch my body expand and shift to accommodate this miracle inside me.”
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Over a year later, Union was prepared to take a drug called Lupron, which would give her a 30% chance of bringing a baby to term. It also meant “throwing your body into early menopause and you can break bones very easily,” she wrote.
In the end, Dwyane changed her mind with one phrase: “You’ve done enough.” At first, Union was not happy with Wade’s response but he didn’t give up.
“As much as we want this baby, I want you,” she recalled him saying. “We’ve lost too much in our relationship for me to be okay with encouraging you to do one more thing to your body and your soul.”
Union revealed how she was wary of the process at the beginning of her surrogacy journey. But after meeting the surrogate, many of her fears dissipated. Especially when she found out her surrogate was a big fan of hers.
“If I am telling the fullness of our stories, of our three lives together, I must tell the truths I live with,” she concluded. “And I have learned that you can be honest and loving at the same time.”
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