Source: AP Images

Siohvaughn Funches-Wade is speaking out again on Dywane Wade and the breakdown of their marriage and subsequent custody agreement in an interview with the Daily Mail Online and it’s not good. The ex-wife of the Miami Heat player and mother of the baller’s two sons is clearly still in a place of literal mourning over the couple’s split and the loss of custody of her boys and she didn’t mind expressing all of those feelings in a rather personal interview.

“The way it broke down was heartbreaking,’ Siohvaughn said of the couple’s split. “It was a mourning to me rather than a divorce. This person I had loved was literally dead. I felt the way a wife feels when her husband dies. That person was literally gone.

“I wish he would’ve stayed,” she said. “If I had to choose between the money and the love, I would have chosen the love. But I can’t choose.”

Despite wishing she and Dwyane were still together, Shiovaughn recalled some pretty horrid moments between the pair, all of which she claims stemmed from him being drafted in 2002. The Mail reports:

“‘I’d practically begged him [to wait to enter the draft],’ she said. ‘We had just got married and had a child. I wanted time to settle, to build as a family. I asked him to choose between his family or him and he chose his family.’

The following year, he chose his career. While Siohvaughn said she willed him to do well, she was ‘terrified’ about how it would affect their marriage, despite her husband’s assurances.

Her fears were justified: After the draft in 2003, he signed a three-year $8.5 million contract and he was thrown into the world of celebrity – and his marriage began to crack.

‘When [NBA commissioner] David Stern called his name, that changed everything,’ she said. ‘Our circumstances were so drastically different. We went from living in in this two-bedroom apartment in Marquette to these places overlooking the ocean in Miami. Everybody said yes to us.

‘I was seduced, too. I lost sight of some of my values. The further I got into that lifestyle, the further I got away from God. I just woke up sooner than he did.’

Siohvaughn said she saw her husband slipping from her as he revelled in his fame and fortune – staying out all night, surrounding himself with new friends and arguing with her, she said.

‘I was very sad because this was not the person I dated,’ she said. ‘This was my very best friend and I couldn’t reach him anymore – without question it was because of the money.

‘I think Dwyane had been rejected a lot when he was younger and then suddenly people started cheering and clapping and wanting to be around him. I think he overindulged in that. It was disgusting to me.’

Wade acknowledges that the relationship was falling apart and that he was desperate for it to work and, aware that the birth of their first son had brought them together, thought he had a solution.

He did ask me to have another child,’ she said. ‘I was very hesitant to do so, not because I didn’t want another child but because there was so much that Dwyane had swept under the rug.

‘There were so many things that were so serious, like other women. It’s my belief that that was happening. But it was part of the lifestyle – going out late, travelling, being with different people.’

On top of the pressures to live the celebrity lifestyle, was the violence Siovaughn claims she experienced when Dwyane was actually home. The domestic incidents prompted her to move in with her mother and file for divorce from Dwyane in 2007 and that’s when the custody battle, which she eventually lost, ensued. When Dwyane was granted sole custody of their boys, Siovaughn was ordered not to have any contact with her sons for 30 days following the ruling to allow them to adjust to their new surroundings. She says that time period was unbearable.

“When my lawyer called, I knew it was bad news but I begged him to tell me. I remember taking a moment to pause. I could break down at that moment or I could say, ‘God help me’. There’s no money that can buy that kind of strength.

“In the hours and weeks after, I cried and cried and I remember being scared when I’d see them again. Would they look different? Would their clothes still fit them? Would they still love me? I worried that they would think I wanted them to go away. There’s nothing anyone could have done for me to say, ‘Get me away from them.’”

“How devastating and traumatic for these two small boys,” she said, sobbing. “Zion was a baby. To tell your baby that I’m going to see them in two days and that turns into two months. I can’t describe what it felt like to speak to them after 30 days. They were crying so hard they couldn’t even talk.”

Fifteen years after hooking up with her high school sweetheart at the young age of 15, Siohvaugn is almost reliving her custody battle all over again, having been arrested for child abduction back in July. Because of her actions, the courts have granted her no visitations between August and November 8 — a judgement she worries will be very hurtful on her boys.

“Not seeing their mother could have a very negative effect,’ Siohvaughn said. “We know what happened to Dwyane without his mom in his life and how he turned to my family.”

For now though, the single mother is focused on completing her law degree and struggling to survive on minimal spousal support from Dwyane which she claims “isn’t enough to pay my bills.” That point aside, I do feel for Siohvaughn and the losses she hasn’t yet been able to put behind her. What do you think about her latest interview?

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Source: Whudat.com

When I was in high school, there was a guy we’ll name Kevin who was dating a girl we’ll call Tracy. One day, Kevin and Tracy were together and out of nowhere he began dating a girl we’ll call Kim.  Tracy cried “foul” but Kim said she had no hand in breaking them up and most people believed her. I asked a sensible male friend his take on the drama and was completely floored when he responded: “Kim probably did break them up, but it doesn’t matter. Kim looks better than Tracy so no one cares.”

Granted, this was high school and most of those dating relationships are about as reliable as MediaTakeout’s latest scoop anyway, but it seems that people apply this same juvenile thinking to marriage.

And the first thing we want to know when we hear about cheating is what does the “other woman” look like. Then, whether we admit it or not, we judge from there whether the cheater was really in the wrong.

Obviously, pretty girls have the privilege in this situation, but if that pretty girl is famous too then the general public automatically thinks she can do no wrong.

The most obvious and in-your-face example of this Pretty, Famous Girl Privilege phenomena is one of my favorite actresses Gabrielle Union and my former favorite NBA player’s ex-wife Siohvaughn Wade.

[Sidenote: I don’t know all the facts regarding what went down in that situation, but whichever side of the line you fall on, you don’t know what exactly went down either. So let’s just get that straight from the outset.]

Though she would have us to believe otherwise, it’s pretty hard to believe that Gabrielle Union is the victim in the Dwayne/Siohvaughn/Gabrielle situation. Every time, I hear her say she “took the high road”, I wonder if she is clear on what that phrase even means. Whether she was the “first girl he looked at” or not, Gabrielle Union entered into that situation before DWade’s divorce was finalized, there’s no disputing that. As Kobe and Vanessa Bryant have made evident, a separation is not a divorce and without third parties entering the picture, there is still opportunity there to reconcile.  Gabrielle volunteered to traipse around Miami with DWade pre-divorce and then balked at the idea that she had anything to do with their divorce. Maybe she really didn’t. The actress endured a divorce herself, so I would hope that she didn’t play a part in that hardship being experienced by someone else.

Even if she did, it doesn’t seem to matter though because she’s pretty and famous.

In contrast, Siohvaughn is painted as “crazy” over and over again as if she should be able to flip her hair and walk away from her highschool sweetheart like they were never married while he publicly and callously replaces her. He’s a certified jerk for his actions and even if he didn’t want to honor his vows, I would think he would show a little more respect to the woman that’s been there for him since high school.

For her part, Siohvaughn could certainly afford to dial down the “crazy” in pursuit of gaining custody of her children, but would we be all so quick to call her psycho if Gabrielle weren’t pretty and famous?

I wondered this same thing when Alicia Keys started dating Swizz Beats. Their relationship and wedding were covered in mainstream tabloid magazines with no mention of the fact that their “Unthinkable” romance began as an affair because Swizz was married to Mashonda when they first hooked up.

We’re all willing to look the other way though because Alicia Keys is pretty and famous and she made beautiful music to complement that adultery.

Marriage is serious, yet when there is a pretty and famous face involved, we equate marriage to adolescent dating relationships that “just don’t work out” or ascribe ghetto names like “babymama” to someone’s ex-wife. Maybe it’s the whole “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t” thing that keeps us from calling a situation what it is and causes us to give the benefit of a doubt to our favorite gorgeous faces instead.

In my opinion, you can be as pretty as you wanna be and still be wrong.  You can do as many interviews and cover as many magazines as you can insisting what you have is “real” and still be “real wrong”.

And as long as Gabrielle Union is on her “I took the high road” nationwide tour, I’m going to wonder if anyone would even be listening if she weren’t pretty and famous.

What do you think? Do you think pretty and famous women get a pass for otherwise questionable actions?

Follow Alissa on Twitter @AlissaInPink

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Source: askkissy.com

It’s starting to seem like Siohvaughn Funches’ difficult disposition isn’t only related to her ex-husband Dwyane Wade. Yesterday a judge was supposed to make a ruling on a request from Wade that Siovaughn be denied any visitation rights after she failed to return her son’s to his custody the day before Father’s Day. But that decision was delayed when Siohvaughn’s lawyer, Michael Haber, who is representing her in both criminal court on misdemeanor charges, including child abduction, and the custody hearing, asked to be removed from the case.

The lawyer’s move is not an unusual one, but what is suspicious is this is the 12th lawyer from the sixth law firm to represent Siohvaughn. On Monday, her lawyer essentially told the judge he couldn’t do it anymore. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, he said:

“Our relationship has broken down to the point that I can no longer represent Ms. Wade. Our interests are adverse to one another.”

Siohvauhgn, on the other hand, doesn’t feel the same. She asked the judge to deny Michael Haber’s request because of his familiarity with the case—he’s her longest-serving attorney to date—and the fact that she’s running out of cash. She stated in court:

 “I beg of you, judge, please. The escrow account is fleeting. It can’t be done.”

She’s going to need someone to back her if a judge is going to believe her claim that an asthma attack on the day she was to return her boys to Dwyane was the cause for the delay. She also alleges that “it’s typical” for D to return their sons late to her custody but somehow those instances have never been seen as a violation of her rights. Dwyane’s attorney James B. Pritikin jumped quickly to his client’s defense, saying flight delays out of Miami are the only cause for any of Dwyane’s late custodial exchanges.

“Mr. Wade has never discouraged that the kids visit their mother. In fact, he’s done everything to encourage it. But [the Father’s Day episode] is not an isolated incident,” he said. “His position is that she has issues, and she needs to deal with those issues.”

Regarding this issue of not having a lawyer, Shiovaughn will have until the end of the week to file a response to her attorney’s plea. The next hearing is scheduled for 1:30 pm Friday. Dwyane’s ex may be better served by therapy to clear her head and then petition to have her rights reinstated once she’s in a better place because things just continue to look worse and worse for her.

Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.

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Source: hiphollywood.com

I’m sure Gabrielle Union is telling the truth and is not at all amused by the blows dealt to her career as a result of her relationship with Dwyane Wade. But it’s almost comical that Hollywood and the entertainment/acting arena of all industries would try to limit someone’s exposure because of their suspect relationship, but that’s what Gabrielle Union says happened to her.

This weekend, the actress spoke with IPower 92′s T.T Torrez during the Radio One Music Fest in Miami, and said this about how her career has been affected by her love life:

“It’s hard because, aside from loving him, I want to protect myself. I’ve built my life. I built my own brand. I built my career and my career took a hit from that madness because some people refuse to see the truth, even when it’s presented to them time and time again. I love him but at some point it’s about self preservation and I needed to protect myself and everything I built.”

I’m thinking endorsements may be what came up short for Gaby, as opposed to acting roles. I can’t recall seeing her in a Neutrogena spot in more than a little bit, although that’s quite interesting when there are others in relationships that are just as Kontroversial (ahem) , if not more, that can’t seem to sell us enough stuff. It may be the sexual contact in front of the kids allegation though that caused Gabrielle Union to fall out of some people’s good graces.

Double standard aside, Gabrielle said when the tables turned she had to figure out a way to make things work:

“I pay for my family. I pay for my mommy and my daddy and my sisters and her family. ‘D’ doesn’t write those checks, I do, so when something is starting to affect the way I make a living, ‘No No No baby’, let me figure out a way for me to protect our home that me and Dwyane have with the kids, you have to put them first. You have to put their love of their mom, their love of peace of mind and love of consistency first, and then I have to make sure I can still feed my own family. Luckily, by taking the high road and not engaging in the back and forth craziness, I was able to do both. Luckily, by doing the right thing and putting the children first, it worked out that I was able to save myself.”

Good for her for making it happen. Unfortunately the couple isn’t quite out of the woods yet with a pending custody hearing stemming from Shiovaughn’s Father’s Day antics. Perhaps D. Wade’s ex-wife should have though about taking the high road because she may soon be without any rights to her children at all. A judge is supposed to make a ruling in the case today, we’ll have to see how the decision shakes out for everybody involved.

Do you think it’s fair Gabrielle Union’s career was affected by her relationship with Dwyane?

Source: Gossiponthis.com

Apparently even Chicago judges know Dwyane Wade’s ex-wife Siohvaughn Funches is crazy because she just got checked in a major way during a court hearing this week.

Siohvaughn had to appear before Cook County Associate Judge Helaine Berger Tuesday regarding her arrest nearly two weeks ago when she neglected to return her sons to D Wade’s custody the day before Father’s Day. After she pulled that stunt, Dwyane called the police and filed an emergency motion to have his ex-wife’s visitation rights totally revoked. While judge Berger delayed her decision during the follow-up hearing, she did issue this warning to Siovaughn, according to the Chicago Sun-Times:

“If you tell them, ‘Your daddy got me arrested,’ I take away visitation. The children should not be in the middle.”

Ouch.

During the heated hearing, Siohvaughn pleaded the Fifth while her attorney accused Dwyane, who was absent, of being too busy to appear in court. Judge Berger decided she needed more time to weigh the facts and put off ruling on the matter until July 9. In the meantime though, she told Siohvaughn that she’s not allowed to spend time with her kids in Chicago until she issues a ruling. The odds definitely don’t appear to be in her favor, especially since she already lost full custody a year ago. She appears to be on her way to not having any rights to her sons at all.

How do you think the judge should rule in this case?

Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.

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Source: USMagazine.com

I can hear the shade typing away already because even though it has to be tough to be blamed for psychologically ruining someone else’s kids with false accusations, considering Gabs was messing with another woman’s husband at the time, Dwyane Wade’s estranged wife, Siohvaughn Funches, deserves just a little leeway for her craziness.

In an interview with Yahoo’s A-Line: Celebrity Style blog, Gabrielle Union was asked how she handled the lawsuit Siovaughn filed against her in 2010 alleging that she had “engaged in sexual foreplay” with D. Wade in front of the couple’s sons, and she told them:

“Taking the high road sucks,” although she added that it was definitely worth it to protect her boo’s 10- and 4-year old sons.

“The biggest lesson [I learned] is that when there are children involved who can’t speak for themselves, no matter how tempted you are to just tell someone else’s truth … you just have to shut your mouth and make sure that they are protected at all times — even if you sacrifice yourself. People will still believe what they want.”

Sort of how people still view her as a homewrecker despite the circumstances surrounding the couple’s union. In 2006, she filed for divorce from NFL star Chris Howard and in 2007 Dwyane drafted papers with his wife, Siohvaughn. Granted he was still married when these two started dating but to say she took him from his wife would be just a bit inaccurate.

Despite how strong the couple appears to be standing throughout all the messiness of his marriage and the media, many still question their potential longevity considering they are two high-profile celebrities. Gabrielle says that’s not an issue.

“We both understand the schedule and the sacrifice and the demand,” she said. “He understands my appeal and I understand his.”

She also pointed out the difference between Dwyane and her ex-husband and other men she dated who couldn’t handle her career as an actress. She said:

“With [Dwyane], we don’t have those issues.”

Since Gabrielle was one of several actors to star in the box office hit, “Think Like a Man,” the reporter had to ask her if thinking like a man is what’s allowed her to have such a successful relationship with D. She said not exactly.

“I think when people say ‘think like a man,’ they really mean use common sense. Just like when they say, you’re thinking like a woman, they mean you are being too emotional. I’m reasonable, you know? I’m not a nut bag!”

We hope not.

How do you feel about Gabrielle Union and D. Wade’s relationship after all this time. Do you think he’ll put a ring on it?

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