Gabrielle Union’s husband Dwyane Wade convinced her to give up on IVF for the sake of her health.
The 46-year-old actress and her basketball star husband Wade, 36, welcomed their daughter Kaavia via a surrogate in November.
Speaking about undergoing IVF to Oprah Winfrey on a special on her network OWN, Union, who had eight miscarriages, said, “I could not let go of this idea of creating this life within me, and felt the need to be pregnant for everybody, including myself.”
However, after seeing the toll the IVF and miscarriages were taking on his wife, Wade stepped in and urged her to consider other options.
He said, “I’m watching her do things to her body and to herself that it’s getting to the point where it’s not healthy.
“And as I always told her, ‘I want this baby just as much as you do, but I married you, and you are the most important thing to me.’
“So it came to a point where, you know, I started to feel a certain way about that because I didn’t want something to happen to her.
“When doctors floated the possibility of a operation, I had to step in and say: ‘Baby, it’s me and you, you know? I wanna grow old with you. And, you know, I want this – I want our miracle baby, but I want you.'”
Wade took paternity leave after Kaavia was born as it was important to him that he bonded with his baby daughter straight away.
He explained, “For me and for my wife and our family, our journey was just totally different. Having a surrogate carry our baby, I wasn’t there to be able to be like [leaning down to the belly]: ‘Hey, baby, daddy’s here.’ You know, to have these conversations, so she can hear me, right, so we can sing to her, so we can read to her. So this connection that we both needed, it had to happen right away.
“They expect my wife to take off, right? Why not expect me to take off as well? We’re parents and we’re doing this together.”
