A promo for an upcoming documentary unearthed details of how Dwyane Wade had to break it to Gabrielle Union years ago that he had fathered a child while the couple was briefly separated.
“Hardest thing I’ve ever had to do is man up and tell Gabrielle Union that I’ve had a child with somebody else,” Wade says in ESPN’s “D. Wade: Life Unexpected” airing on February 23.
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“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— somebody’s life up, that you care about, that you love, if it don’t hurt you, then you’re not human,” Wade added, in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “… Me and Gab just went through something that you never want to go through and we still came out of it.”
Wade and Union began dating in 2008 and broke up briefly in 2013 which is when he fathered a son, Xavier, now 6, with Aja Metoyer. The pair announced their engagement later in 2013, and in a press conference before a game in December of that year, according to Yahoo!, he told reporters of the baby: “I had a time, a part in our break, in our pain and our hurt, a blessing came out of it in my life, having a son that was born healthy.”
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Wade also has a son, Zaire, 18, and daughter Zaya, 12, from his previous marriage to Siohvaughn Funches. The NBA legend is also guardian to and the guardian to nephew Dahveon, 18. Wade recently opened up to Ellen DeGeneres about how he and his family are supporting Zaya who is transgender. He and Union share daughter Kaavia born in 2018. Wade retired from the NBA after the 2018-19 season after 16 seasons which included three championships. He pointed to his expanding family as one of the reasons he was walking away.
Wade has since begun working as a studio analyst for TNT, and on Saturday he was a judge in the All-Star Weekend dunk contest in his hometown of Chicago.