Gabrielle Union is a self-made woman, but that doesn’t mean that her family wants her to work. The Hollywood leading lady checked in with Gwyneth Paltrow’s podcast “The Goop” and explained that her NBA baller husband Dwyane Wade and his older kids — daughter Zaya, 13, son Zaire, 19 and Wade’s nephew Dahveon Morris, 19 — believed she “should not” work because Wade is able to provide for her and take care of her in the style to which she has become accustomed.
“They had gotten into this stage as pre-teens where they just wanted us to be like other families. They had looked up how much their dad made and they thought that I should not work — I should just be at home like the other moms of their friends because ‘Dad is rich and you should just stay home and we should be a normal family like everyone else,'” explained the Bad Boys II star.
Union and Wade officially married in 2014 after six years of dating. They had their first child together, Kaavia James Union Wade, in 2018. Union also revealed that the older kids were more than happy once the union was official, but still wanted “mom home.”
“They just wanted to be normal, whatever that is,” she further commented during the discussion. “By the time we got married, it was just… relief for them, which isn’t always an emotion you associate with kids in this situation. And they were like, ‘Ah we’re a normal family. Wait. You’re leaving. And dad’s still rich, so what’s happening here?’”
Union stated that she eventually discussed the importance of working with her older kids, as well as why it was necessary for a woman to have a career outside of her family.
“‘Sometimes, women want to work and have a career and just do other things and this is what makes me who I am. It doesn’t mean I love you any less or I don’t want the job or I don’t love being your stepmother,’” she told Paltrow about the conversation with her family.
“I will do my best to be here for all of the things that you want me to be here [for], while at the same time making sure that space for mom or dad is there. It is the golden seat of honor, always.”
The couple also raises Wade’s 7-year-old son Xavier from a previous relationship – so their hands are definitely always full.
