Gabrielle Union is stepping into a new chapter—one where vulnerability trumps her long-held stance on splitting everything 50/50 with her husband, Dwyane Wade.
Back in May 2023, the Bring It On star sparked a firestorm online when she revealed that she and Wade divide all expenses, including bills, right down the middle.
In a candid Bloomberg interview, she explained: “I think I just have more responsibilities for my money so I get nervous like oh God that movie didn’t open, well what does that mean? Am I going to have enough to hold everybody up and everyone’s like it’s coming, calm down. And I’m trying to find peace in the journey and not using my anxiety and scarcity mindset to be my engine, which is hard. It’s weird to say I’m head of household because in this household we split everything 50/50.”
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A month later, Wade stepped in to clarify her comments on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast.
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He broke it down: “First of all, let’s say I have 20 to 50 responsibilities and my wife has 20 to 50 responsibilities. Now, when I say that, that means she has her mother, her sisters, her dad. So, she has a lot of things she’s responsible for. She pays 100% of that and you know what I do? I pay 100% of my life … When we were in Miami I said something about it being my house that I paid for. My wife looked at me and said you will never say that to me again when it’s something that we share. So when we moved to LA my wife was like I got half on it you will never say my house again.”
Fast forward to her recent appearance on the Balanced Black Girl podcast, where Union opened up about a shift in perspective.
She’s rethinking the 50/50 framework that once defined her marriage to the former NBA star.
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She admitted to host Les Alfred: “I famously said, ’50/50 or bust,’ right? And I meant that financially, spiritually, and emotionally. There’s just a lot of days that I have 10% and I need him to be 90%. There’s days that I don’t have sh*t and I need him to be 100%. It’s a trauma response. 50/50 is, ‘I’m not going to be vulnerable enough to trust you with 100% of anything. Not my heart, not my cash.’ When I started to really address that, I was like, ‘Do you want to pay the whole mortgage?’ I thought I was about to die. I had such anxiety. I was crying. I was shaking. And he was like, ‘You insisted on that.’ He’s like, ‘I thought it made you feel better.’ I’m like, ‘It did, and right now I want to take it back.’”
Union unpacked her evolving mindset, revealing how letting go of that rigid split has transformed their relationship.
She shared that she now feels comfortable asking Wade—who earned significantly more as an NBA superstar—to take on the full mortgage.
“Because I hate the feeling of releasing that to someone,” she said. “And [when] you release that to someone, chaos can happen. It’s brought us closer. Because he knows it’s not about whether he can afford it. It’s being vulnerable enough, to be open enough to know that I’m okay. I’m okay as his wife. He’s okay as my husband. I’m okay in this family. I’m okay in this home. I deserve it. And so, I’m trying to expand my heart, expand all of the notions of what vulnerability can look like.”
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For Union, this shift isn’t just about finances—it’s about trust, growth, and redefining what strength looks like in her marriage.
