Popular Hollywood actress Gabrielle Union has said that she feared the worst when her husband Dwayne Wade was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Recall that the couple recently celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary on August 30 and even shared a montage of videos on Instagram marking their special day.
Speaking during an interview with the reputed media outlet Marie Clare, Gabrielle revealed that it was one of the toughest periods she has ever had to deal with.
According to her, the thought of having to raise their kids alone was scary to her at the time, so his cancer automatically became their cancer as they searched for medical solutions.
The moviestar admitted that she had a few selfish reactions to the troubling situation, and it began to threaten the trust in her marriage.
“It was hard to navigate publicly the things that were happening privately. Even though we all know plenty of survivors, immediately you go to death, immediately we all internalize his cancer. It’s our cancer.
I’ll speak for myself when I say that the decisions that he was making hurt me about his cancer. It felt like, ‘Oh, you’re trying to kill me.’
And I’m going to be alone raising these kids. It’s a very selfish response that I had, and it caused all kinds of problems, but [so did] his need for secrecy about his cancer decisions. It just starts sowing the seeds of distrust,” she said.
Revealing that Dwayne went through a lot after his kidney cancer diagnosis, Gabrielle stressed that the NBA legend just wasn’t ready to face the possibility of his death in his early 40s.
She concluded by saying that the experience definitely took its toll on their family until a successful surgery got rid of the tumour.
“It was year nine of our marriage and … year nine was very hard. When you mention year nine being hard, he hadn’t revealed his cancer diagnosis and his own cancer journey, so now we can put it in more context.
Obviously him getting that diagnosis was traumatic for him: Being faced with your own mortality in your early 40s, and you’re like, ‘Am I going to be here to see my family? Who am I without this big life, and without this healthy body? But you also don’t understand the journey and the toll that it takes on your marriage, on your family, on your kids,” she added.
Folami David is a dynamic journalist who views the world through an analytical lens, translating complex narratives across multiple industries into compelling stories. With an insatiable appetite for information and a keen eye for emerging trends, Folami specializes in uncovering the interconnections between technology, business, culture, and society.
