Gabrielle Union sent shockers to her fans when she revealed that she and her husband Dwayne Wade, share household expenses equally.
Gabrielle Union is married to 41-year-old former NBA player Dwyane Wade, and the couple have a 4-year-old daughter Kaavia. Both partners are multimillionaires independently and have been married since 2014.
Union, who is also a stepmother to Wade’s three children from previous relationships made the revelation in a Bloomberg interview, that she and her hubby split everything “50/50.”
“It’s weird to say I’m head of household, because, in this household, we split everything 50/50,” Union said.
Dwyane Wade has two children – Zaire, 21, and Zaya, 15 − with ex-wife Siovaughn Funches, and a son Xavier, 9, with Aja Metoyer.
“But in the other households that each of us have to support, there’s always this gorilla on your back that is like, ‘You better work! You better work! You want to sleep in? Somebody might not eat.’ And it’s hard. It’s hard to let that go, so I’m working on that,” she added.
“I have more responsibilities for my money,” she said. “I get nervous. Like, ‘Oh god, that movie didn’t open. Well, what does that mean? Am I going to have enough to hold everybody up?’ … I’m trying to find peace in the journey, not using my anxiety and scarcity mindset to be my engine, which is hard.”
The news drew various reactions from fans:
“This is sooooo unnecessary,” wrote one Twitter user. “As an independent,career woman, I don’t have a problem with any woman who wants to support herself and contribute to paying bills. However, stop this portrayal as if you’re living paycheck to paycheck! It’s not a good look when hubby’s got mega bank!”
“Women are terrified of 50/50 because the unpaid labour is rarely 50/50 — so women end up being exploited. This is a working class, poor people issue. Please stop projecting onto millionaires Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade,” wrote another.
“Hyper independence is a trauma response,” tweeted one user. “What Gabrielle Union is describing is poverty trauma and/or her inability to trust anyone else.”
Another quipped, “Y’all do understand that multimillionaire Gabrielle Union splitting bills 50/50 with her multimillionaire husband Dwyane Wade is entirely different than you, an hourly worker, going 50/50 with your hourly worker bd/bf/homey/lover/friend, right?”
Gabrielle Union, who had struggled with infertility for many years, had her child with Dwayne Wade in November 2018 through surrogacy.
In her memoir, she shared that she’s had at least eight miscarriages and eight failed in vitro fertilization cycles.
“For lots of people/families who have been on their own unique fertility/family creation journey, hope can feel like a cruel joke that plays on repeat,” the star shared. “You stop letting yourself get excited and you don’t dare utter any updates. You carry it all. It can feel isolating and depressing.”