On the Monday, March 14 edition of “Tamron Hall,” actress and entrepreneur Gabrielle Union joins the show to discuss her upcoming film, the new remake of “Cheaper by the Dozen.”Union, who is also an author and has several business ventures, shares how she and her husband, former NBA star Dwyane Wade, manage their busy calendars and balance work with being home with their family. The actress also explains the parameters she follows when sharing on her three-year-old daughter, Kaavia’s popular Instagram account, and how Kaavia became one of the youngest owners in professional sports.
Gabrielle Union on how she and husband Dwyane Wade balance family with their busy schedules:
“I have to balance my ambition with my soul. I will not take on anything, I don’t do anything if it disrupts my peace, my joy and my grace, and that’s also what my family is to me – my peace, my joy and my grace. So if somebody comes with this amazing opportunity, I’m like, ‘Wow, that is amazing…for someone. Not for me, not with everything that I have going on.’ Because when my peace and my soul and all of that is disrupted, it ripples through the whole family. It’s just not worth it. There’s nothing that’s worth their peace.” When asked if she has guilt when balancing the family, Union responds, “Every day. So when I walk in to you know, whether it’s preschool or we took her to dance class for the first time in Atlanta, you know, last week, and she’s [Kaavia] like, ‘That’s my mom, Gabrielle Union.’ And I’m like, ‘Do I need a name tag in my house?’ But it just makes you feel like ‘Dang, I’m gone too much where she feels like she has to claim me, publicly, you know, to everybody. Like ‘that’s my mom.’ I’m like, ‘well don’t people know?’”
Gabrielle Union on how she manages her three-year-old daughter Kaavia’s popular Instagram account:
“I mean, we don’t share every single thing. D [Dwyane] has certain parameters about how he wants his daughter to be presented to the world, but we wanted to create a space for her and other little Black girls to just exist. If they don’t feel like smiling, don’t smile. If your hair’s not done, it’s not done. These are not character issues – [it] doesn’t say anything about us as parents or anything about her as a child, but it gives her and other little Black girls a beat to be free, to be their complete authentic selves. And a lot of times when you see like some Instagrams where everything has to be super perfect, like even the kids are airbrushed. That’s not realistic and we can’t keep that up and I want little Black girls and Black women to be able to exist in the world exactly as we are without any expectations.”
Union on becoming part owners of a professional women’s soccer team alongside her daughter Kaavia, and Kaavia being one of the youngest owners in professional sports:
“Yes, and I love that what we did as a collective, you know, Serena Williams and her daughter, Olympia, they kicked us off into ownership, and then you know, followed up with Candace Parker and her daughter Lailaa, and they were like, ‘Come on, we got to complete the trifecta.’ And so me and Kaav dove in and it is amazing. I played soccer my whole life. So I’m a huge fan and I was usually one of the only Black people as far as the eye could see on those soccer fields in those tournaments. So to be a part of ownership and to see our team is so diverse and it’s so amazing. We are International Women’s Day every day.”
