During an appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast Sept. 21, former NBA star Dwyane Wade opened up about the fear he experienced after he told his wife, Gabrielle Union, that he would welcome a baby with reality TV star Aja Metoyer.
Wade and Metoyer welcomed their son, Xavier Zechariah Wade, in November 2013, a year before he and Union married in August 2014. At the time, the couple was reportedly on a break. When Sharpe asked the Miami Heat alum if confessing the news of his son was “harder than competing for the NBA Finals,” the father of five said it was “way harder to have a conversation” with the actress.
“I mean, you’re thinking about it. All right. It’s all scary. The whole situation is scary enough,” he said.
At the time, Wade and the Being Mary Jane star were focused on “building” a life together.
“And no matter what people say outside or what people think, it’s like, ultimately, like you got to sit with you,” Wade continued. “You got to sit with this person, this woman you’re gonna be with, right? And I had to sit with my wife about this. Well, my now-wife about this.”
Sharpe said he didn’t think Union would have stayed with the 41-year-old retired athlete had the news of Metoyer’s pregnancy become public before he told her.
Wade agreed.
“I couldn’t have gotten through that moment without her sticking with me.”
When Metoyer was pregnant with Xavier, the Chicago native was gearing up to compete in the 2013 NBA Finals. Under stress and fear, Wade struggled to tell his then-girlfriend Union the truth about his son.
“Man, that was a rough time for me, bro. You know? When you’re keeping something from somebody you love. It’s heavy, and at night, when it gets quiet, and it’s just you and your thoughts–those thoughts get loud,” the baller said.
“I tried to pussyfoot around it. I tried to break up with her: ‘Hey, you know things have been bad lately. We’ve been having a look at this relationship.’ Anyway, I tried all that. She kept showing up.”
Today, Wade and the 50-year-old Hollywood star are still going strong, but they continue to work on their relationship. The PROUDLY co-founder revealed that he and Union attend therapy often.
“It hasn’t been perfect. It will never be perfect. But that was nine years ago, and we still go to therapy. We’ve had shouts about it. We’ve had regular conversations about it. And so it’s been something that is going to continue to be something that I have to work at, and it doesn’t go away because years come or because I say ‘sorry.'”
Union and Wade first met while co-hosting a Super Bowl party in 2007.
They began dating in 2009. The couple did not appear together publicly until 2010, People noted. Three years later, the lovebirds got engaged and walked down the aisle a year later in 2014.
Union is a proud stepmother to the former athlete’s three children: Zaire Blessing Dwyane, Xavier Zechariah and Zaya from his previous relationships. In 2018, the couple welcomed their adorable daughter, Kaavia, via surrogacy.
Wade is also the guardian of his nephew, Dahveon Morris.
Union made Wade reassess his friendships after his NBA career began to skyrocket.
Union has helped Wade level up in many ways, especially with his friendships. When the NBA baller’s career began to take off, Wade told Sharpe that he was eager and excited to bring his friends along for the journey. However, as he excelled, some of his close friendships began to dwindle due to his success. Some were holding him back from his potential.
“When you’re a young man growing up in an impoverished community, all you got is your homeboys and your family. So y’all have the same dream together to a point where your dream becomes everybody’s dream. … you try to allow access and bring everybody with you, but we all know how that’s going to work,” the patriarch told Sharpe.
“You’re lucky if you find someone who wants more than just what they’re given… How many people are you going to find that are going to go out and go, ‘Thank you for getting us here, now I’m going to go out and get mine?'”
When Union and Wade began dating, the Bring It On star kicked out some friends living with him.
“It took my wife to come in and say, ‘What’s going on in this frat house? What’s up in this dorm?'” And I had to go, ‘Oh, you’re right.’ I’m with a grown woman now, and so sometimes, it takes certain people to come in and show you, like, yo, what are you doing?”
Watch the full interview below.
Gabrielle Union opened up about her rough patch with Wade in 2021.
In her 2021 memoir, You Got Anything Stronger? Union explained her pain after learning that Wade had fathered a son with Metoyer.
“In 2013, before we were married, Dwyane had a baby with another woman. It should go without saying that we were not in a good place at the time that child was conceived,” the star penned. “But we were doing much better when he finally told me about the pregnancy. To say I was devastated is to pick a word on a low shelf for convenience. There are people—strangers I will never meet—who have been upset that I have not previously talked about that trauma. I have not had words, and even after untold amounts of therapy, I am not sure I have them now.”
When the truth about Wade’s son rocked their relationship, Union struggled with fertility issues.
“The experience of Dwyane having a baby so easily—while I was unable to—left my soul not just broken into pieces but shattered into fine dust scattering in the wind,” she added.
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