Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade seem to have a loving, successful marriage, even more so with the addition of their baby daughter via surrogate.
However, Union has revealed that she demanded a prenup from the NBA star.
“For this marriage… the biggest difference between this and the last marriage will be a prenup. At my insistence,” she said in an interview.
“When you have your own stuff, you don’t need to worry about anybody else’s stuff. So everyone should go into the relationship knowing I’m here for you and you’re here for me. And the reality is I’ve never seen Dwyane balance a checkbook. So… I gotta protect my stuff… That’s the wave of the future, protecting your stuff.”
In another interview, she elaborated, “For women in Hollywood, when they’re coupling, everything is about the brand. Everything is about latching on to a rising star, so you can kick your heels up. That’s never been my story, ever. I make sure to let people know all of the hard work that’s gone into my career.”
She continued, “Now that it’s time to get married to a man who happens to play basketball and has done well for himself, I want to make it clear that I have in no way hitched my wagon to his star.”
The Bring It On and 10 Things I Hate About You star was previously married to NBA player Chris Howard. The pair were married from 2001 to 2005.
Some might argue that the marriage was doomed from the proposal, which allegedly involved Howard eating a bucket of KFC chicken while holding the ring, waiting for Union to arrive home.
In her memoir We’re Going to Need More Wine, Union revealed that her friends had also voiced concerns about the marriage. Speaking about her friend performing a reading at her wedding, she wrote, “Dulé thought this marriage was a terrible mistake, so as he read from 1 Corinthians, he kept sighing dramatically, pausing to look at me like ‘Are you getting this?'”
The pair split over Howard’s many cheating scandals.
Wade has also been through a messy divorce.
Married to Siohvaughn Funches from 2002 to 2007, the pair’s legal battles lasted well into 2010. Funches claimed that Wade had been abusive towards her and had left her without child support for long periods of time.
She also attempted to sue Union for breaking up their marriage. Wade ended up being awarded full custody of the couple’s children.
Wade also fathered a child while he and Union were on a break in 2013. In his documentary D. Wade: Life Unexpected, Dwyane, he admitted that telling Union about the child was one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do.
Union and Wade also have a child that was conceived via surrogate in 2018.
Earlier this year, Wade’s daughter Zaya came out as transgender, which he fully supports.
“As I’m raising [Zaya], as I’m raising my kids, you just try to put them in the best situations to be able to succeed in life,” he said.
“How I do that, and how me and my wife decide to do that, may be different than another family, but we want them to know there’s always unconditional love, that it will always be support.”
