Dwayne Wade Opens Up About Sharing with Gabrielle Union That He Fathered Another Child

Gettyimages | John Sciulli

While NBA legend, Dwayne Wade, and his wife, Gabrielle Union, are doing better than ever, but it wasn't always great for the couple. Over the years, they've had their ups and downs, even splitting up for a finite amount of time.

But according to Wade, perhaps the most difficult time the couple had together was when Wade had to share with Union that he had fathered a child with another woman. The basketball player revealed his story in an ESPN documentary that is set to air later this month.

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Wade and Union first met in 2007 at a Super Bowl party, but jumped into a relationship two years later. At the time, Wade was already the father of two children, Zaire, 18, and Zaya, 12, that he had with his high school sweetheart, Siohvaughn Funches.

And while things were going great for the couple, the relationship would not last, at least temporarily. Wade and Union called it quits three years after they began dating, citing their busy schedules and distance as the reasons for the split.

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In January of 2013, Union shared with Glamour Magazine that the breakup was strictly due to their scheduling conflicts and the distance constantly between them. "It was because of distance and scheduling," Union revealed.

At the time of their breakup, Union was involved in filming her Show, Being Mary Jane, while also taking roles in various films.

For Wade, his basketball schedule required him to travel across North America for NBA games. Ultimately, the packed schedules and distance proved too much for the couple. "I couldn’t take time off, and I missed some quality togetherness we desperately needed," Union said to Glamour.

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Not long after Wade and Union split, a woman named Aja Metoyerin, someone who the former Miami Heat player had known for years, became pregnant with his child.

In April of that same year, only several months after their split, Wade and Union decided to rekindle their romantic relationship, leaving him with no choice but to tell Union what had happened, something Wade claims to be one of the hardest things he's ever had to do.

In the ESPN documentary, D. Wade: Life Unexpected, he candidly revealed, "[The] hardest thing I’ve ever had to do is man up and tell Gabrielle Union that I’ve had a child with somebody else. I couldn’t sleep. I wasn’t eating."

Gettyimages | Gregg DeGuire

For Wade, though, the pain of not telling Union outweighed keeping it secret. He loved and cared about her and felt compelled to tell her, despite how it made him look.

"When you hold something in that you know is going to come out and you have this information and you know it’s gonna f*ck somebody’s life up, that you care about, that you love, if it don’t hurt you, then you’re not human," he said.

Union decided to stay by his side, though, helping Wade welcome in his son, Xavier, in November of 2013. And it seems the solidarity the two have found in one another has made them stronger than ever. Just a month later, Wade proposed to Union and the couple has remained happy ever since. It's, fortunately, a happy ending to what could have otherwise been a disaster for Wade.