May 12, 2025
Gabrielle Union Felt ‘F*ck*ng Public Humiliation’ During Surrogacy: ‘It Felt Like Failure’
'If I had the ability to do this myself, I would've'
Gabrielle Union spoke candidly to Marie Claire about the embarrassment she felt welcoming her daughter via surrogacy.
In a May 7 interview, the Being Mary Jane star reflected on her and husband Dwyane Wade’s decision to welcome their now 7-year-old daughter Kaavia James, through surrogacy in 2018.
“Because it’s different and because every single person’s surrogacy journey is different,” Union, 52 said, “it’s like any time there’s any kind of variance in the experience, it’s, ‘See, I told you. You shouldn’t explore this option to expand your family.’ But for me, it felt like failure. My body failed. It just felt like such a fu*king public humiliation.”
While Wades aren’t the only celebrity couple to welcome a child through surrogacy, joining the estimated 750 surrogacy births each year, that did not lighten Union’s insecurities.
“To be there for somebody else succeeding where I failed—it is a mind fu*k for people who have had my journey and who feel similarly,” she explained. “When it’s never been your reality, I get the urge to judge and cast aspersions because we all want whatever route we took to be the “right” way.”
Addressing critics of surrogacy, the Bring It On star didn’t hold back.
“If I had the ability to do this myself, I would’ve,” Union said. “Your baby’s here and your baby’s awesome. My baby’s here and my baby’s awesome.”
Union, who is also stepmom to Wade’s kids with ex-wife Siohvaughn Funches, Zaire, 23, and Zaya, 17, and son Xavier, 11, with Aja Metoyer, said she’ll never be completely comfortable that she welcomed her child through surrogacy.
“No. I’ll never have peace with it, ever,” she explained. “And that’s not a what-anybody-has-to-say thing; that’s just—my yearning has never dissipated. I was so ready for my surprise, but all the prayers that didn’t get answered in the way that I thought made me more conscientious that my child is here.”
Union continued. “I’m very grateful to our gestational caregiver, though. It’s just one of those things where it’s such a personal journey that I may never know full peace with the coulda, woulda, shouldas.”
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