*Gabrielle Union is getting candid about her diagnosis with adenomyosis and her 2018 surrogacy journey in a new essay for Time magazine.
The 48-year-old actress wrote about having multiple miscarriages over the years and recalled being told by her doctor in 2016 that surrogacy was her best chance of having a healthy baby.Â
“I was not ready to do that,” she wrote in the piece. “I wanted the experience of being pregnant. To watch my body expand and shift to accommodate this miracle inside me.”
After exploring her options, including a drug called Lupron, which would increase her chance of carrying a baby to term, Union ultimately opted to explore surrogacy, as taking the drug meant “throwing your body into early menopause and you can break bones very easily,” she wrote.
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“As much as we want this baby, I want you,” she recalled her husband Dwayne Wade saying about her considering Lupron. “We’ve lost too much in our relationship for me to be okay with encouraging you to do one more thing to your body and your soul.”
Union admitted her fears about the process were subdued after meeting the surrogate and learning she’s a fan of Union’s.
Union’s daughter Kaavia was born via surrogate in 2018.Â
“Relief, anxiety, terror, joy, resentment, disbelief, gratitude … and also, disconnection,” said Union of her emotions after her daughter was born. “I had hoped that the second I saw her, there would be a moment of locking in. I looked over at Natalie and her husband. There was a stillness to them. I looked at Kaavia James on the table, and then back at them. It took all of us to create her, so I wanted to share this time with them.”
Union is also stepmother to five children she shares with Wade.
“If I am telling the fullness of our stories, of our three lives together, I must tell the truths I live with,” she concluded. “And I have learned that you can be honest and loving at the same time.”
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