The Wades are a picture-perfect couple but they experience struggle just like anyone else. Gabrielle Union recently opened up about how her longtime NBA husband Dwyane Wade’s kidney cancer diagnosis took a toll on their marriage. The former athlete was diagnosed with cancer in 2023.
“It was year nine of our marriage and … year nine was very hard,” Union, 52, said during a Feb. 26 appearance on Today with Jenna & Friends.
“When you mention year nine being hard, he hadn’t revealed his cancer diagnosis and his own cancer journey, so now we can put it in more context,” Union says.
The NBA Hall of Famer had to have 40% of his kidney removed after they discovered a cancerous tumor. As expected, the diagnosis was traumatic for both Wade who was in his early forties at the time.
“Obviously him getting that diagnosis was traumatic for him: Being faced with your own mortality in your early forties, and you’re like, ‘Am I going to be here to see my family? Who am I without this big life, and without this healthy body?’” Union added.
“But you also don’t understand the journey and the toll that it takes on your marriage, on your family, on your kids,” she said.
The Wade’s got married in 2014 and share one child together–Kaavia James, 6. Dwayne also has two children Zaire, 22, and Zaya, 17, with his ex-wife Siovaughn Funches. Additionally, the former basketball player has a son, Xavier, 11, with Aja Metoyer.
Wade struggled with vulnerability that comes with battling an illness. On his The WY Network podcast, the NBA icon said he didn’t want to be perceived as weak.
“My own journey to have that surgery, I think it was the first time that my family, my dad, my kids, they saw me weak,” he shared on his podcast at the time. “That moment was probably the weakest point I’ve ever felt in my life.”
Union commented on his remarks saying, “That level of vulnerability, to go through removal of a good chunk of his kidney and the healing that involved, he needed us to be okay with his vulnerability but more than that, he needed to be okay with his vulnerability.”
“It was a challenge,” she continued. “It was a challenge to give grace and receive it.”
We’re glad their family was able to overcome that challenge and can use it as inspiration for other families navigating similar situations.