Gabrielle Union may be thriving with her husband Dwyane Wade and their beautiful daughter Kaavia, but the actress says the road to becoming a mother was not an easy one.
In her forthcoming book, “You Got Something Stronger?” the “Bring It On” actress opens up about her and Wade using a surrogate to welcome their daughter. Union says even after experiencing “more miscarriages than I could confidently count” and failed IVF treatments, she was not fully ready to accept surrogacy as a means of having a child. Instead, she was eager to watch her body “expand and shift to accommodate this miracle inside me.” Sadly, Union was unable to go through a healthy pregnancy after being diagnosed with adenomyosis. The condition occurs when the tissue that usually lines the uterus expands into the muscular wall of the uterus.
Union also shared her feelings about Wade fathering a child with another woman before their wedding in 2013.
“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,” an excerpt of the book published by Time read. The couple also co-parents Xavier, Zaire, and Zaya, Wade’s children from a previous relationship, and his nephew Dahveon Morris.
Eventually, Union decided to go through with the surrogacy, choosing a surrogate mother named Natalie. After a tense labor, which lasted 38 hours and required an emergency C-Section, Kaavia was born on November 7th, 2018.
You can read Gabrielle Union’s entire journey when “You Got Something Stronger?” hits the shelves on Tuesday, September 14th.
