Gabrielle Union is publicly speaking out after her unexpected and controversial exit from America’s Got Talent.
On Wednesday, the actress took to Twitter to express her gratitude to fans after admitting she was feeling shaken and saddened after her ousting as a judge on the popular competition series.
“So many tears, so much gratitude. THANK YOU! Just when you feel lost, adrift, alone… you got me up off the ground. Humbled and thankful, forever ❤,” Union penned on Twitter.
News broke late last week that the actress as well as fellow judge Julianne Hough would not be returning for another season of America’s Got Talent: The Champions, which is set to premiere on January 6, 2020. The casting decision came amid a report, published by Variety on November 26, which alleged that Hough and Union had been cut after they “complained of toxic culture.” The report cites alleged racist incidents which Union urged producers to report to HR, according to insiders familiar with the show. The report also claims both Union and Hough “received excessive notes on their physical appearance” with Union being told her hair was “too black” for the show.
In another followup report published by Vulture, sources alleged that Union was described as “difficult” by fellow judge and show producer Simon Cowell as well as other producers. The report also claimed that Cowell asked Union not to take her complaints to NBC but instead address them with him personally—like her issue with Cowell continuously smoking indoors. Union is allergic to cigarette smoke and California law states employers can’t allow smoking in enclosed workspaces, but despite her complaints Union was told “no one could stop Cowell from smoking and that previous attempts by a fire marshal and NBC executives had been unsuccessful.” Vulture also confirmed that Union originally had a three-year contract with AGT.
As far as celebrity power couples go, you’d be hard pressed to find one who seem to have as much fun as actress Gabrielle Union and her husband, former NBA superstar Dwyane Wade.
These two are the definition of living their best lives, and luckily for us, they’re fond of sharing the good times on their social media channels. Actually, Union and Wade are also super open about the tougher times in their marriage—like their struggles with infertility before having daughter Kaavia James via a surrogate—which makes the celebrations even more joyous to see.
Do some of their posts inspire insane vacation envy? Sure, but we can live with that. The couple even has a hashtag for the frequent travels: #WayneWorldTour. The latest fabulous trip is a celebration of the Union and Wade’s fifth wedding anniversary, and they’re living it up with friends on a yacht in the Mediterranean.
To kick it off, they both shared sweet anniversary posts to each other. “I had THE best time at our wedding and I’ve been smiling ever since. To see this video & so many of our loved ones & all the fun we had…man, we partied till the sun came up. 8-30-2014
If you were there, tell the tale in the comments ❤?❤,” Union wrote on Instagram.
“The first 5 rounds was light bring on the next 5‼️ Happy 5th anniversary @gabunion ?,” Wade echoed.
L.A.’s Finest, available on Charter Communications’ Spectrum Originals, picks up 15 years after Bad Boys II, with Syd now working as an LAPD detective alongside her partner, Nancy McKenna, played by Jessica Alba. Alba had just given birth to her third child when she was approached about the role, so she was hesitant to take on a demanding network show. Her respect for Union’s hustle, and the network’s responsiveness to Alba’s needs as a mother, changed her mind. “I know how hard it is to be successful in this business,” Alba says. “So many people are talented and gorgeous and the next thing that everybody wants—to be able to push through the noise and find your own path is a feat. I respect that Gabrielle has been in this business for so long and found her way. She produced and helped develop and create this show. That is so cool.”
It was important for Union to have the opportunity to make Syd a fully realized character who has a full backstory, mythology, and mysteries. “I wanted her to have a very full sexual life, like Mary Jane,” Union says, referring to Mary Jane Paul, the role she played on BET’s Being Mary Jane. “I wanted her to have more sexual fluidity than any character I’ve ever had.” In short, L.A.’s Finest is about complex, deep, and sometimes flawed women.
Now that the new season has wrapped, Union’s next career chapter is all about using her platform to lift others up. Yes, her role on America’s Got Talent is to judge others. But she says she gets a thrill from telling contestants yes. “Part of what makes me cry is people’s visceral, emotional reaction to hearing a yes,” she says. “Even if I’m the only yes and the rest are no’s and they’re still not going to go through, you’re just someone saying, ‘I believe in you. I see you. I get what your genius is, even if nobody else does.’”
Similarly, with her production company, I’ll Have Another, her sole focus is giving people an opportunity—and getting them paid. “I think people thought I was just going to make shit that I wanted to put myself in,” she says. “But I’m already on a show. I don’t need all the jobs. I’m straight.”
Instead she’s looking for projects with unique voices that she doesn’t see anywhere else. Specifically, telling the stories from those who’ve been overlooked—the stifled, the silenced, the writers who can’t seem to make it out of the junior ranks in writers room. She became obsessed with being a super champion for others, an endeavor she admits is exhausting but that also, she says, “gives me wings.”
This is where she sees she can make change: by creating the kinds of roles and writing positions she wishes existed in her twenties. “When the script for the pilot of Scandal came out, every black actress wanted it because there was nothing like it,” she says. “It was it. I’m trying to create that same feeling, but a bunch of those. There are so many different creators of color who are creating amazing content, and I want to be a part of that.”
“With my production company, I’m trying to give voice to all the things I wish I’d had sooner,” Union says. “I want to create the scripts I want to do. I want to have wild success. And I want to have epic failures, that’s a part of it too.”
She’s more interested in creating content that audiences actually want to see than pleasing Hollywood. “I’m not here to serve Hollywood,” she says. “I’m not here to serve the one percent. I’m not here to serve the Talented Ten. At the end of the day, I’m Nickie Union from Omaha, Nebraska.”
In early November, Gabrielle Union and her husband, NBA star Dwyane Wade, welcomed their daughter, Kaavia James, via surrogate. The Being Mary Jane actress has been open about her fertility struggles, telling Oprah Winfrey in December 2018 it was hard to let go of the idea of carrying her child. “Am I defective in some kind of way? Am I less than in some kind of way? Am I less worthy in some kind of way?” she said at the time. Ultimately, though, Union embraced surrogacy and came to the conclusion there are “all different ways you can become parents.”
Unfortunately, our culture still shames women who can’t conceive or deliver naturally—so much so that Union feared she wouldn’t be accepted by other moms because she used a surrogate. “People want to see the bump, hear that you got hemorrhoids—they want to know you’re like them,” Union said in a new interview with Women’s Health. “I was like, ‘This is going to seem like the most Hollywood sh*t ever. Will I be embraced as a mom?’ It’s terrifying.”
At first, the idea of surrogacy seemed like “surrendering to failure” Union said, but she adjusted her mindset to focus on finding the right woman for the job. “Some people care about the race, religion, or food habits of their surrogate. I was like, ‘I want a reader,'” she tells Women’s Health. When a potential surrogate told Union she “loved the smell of pages” in books, she knew she found the one.
Union’s candor about the complicated emotions surrounding surrogacy struck a nerve online. “Please, stop making women feel like not being able to have a baby makes them a failure,” tweeted one person. “Kaavia is as much your daughter as she would have been through a natural conception + birth or through adoption. Congrats,” wrote another.
Union said she’s at a point in her life where she’s in the “right mindset and mental space” to be a mom. “I’m open to being the best mom I can be,” she said. Read more of her Women’s Health interview here.
For the past couple of weeks, actress Gabrielle Union has been showing off looks from her latest upcoming collaboration with New York & Company on her Instagram, which seems to have a “eat/pray/love/travel/chill” vibe going on, in her words. Out in early January, her designs seem to encompass a range of styes, including seriously comfy (and cute) athleisure. But when she posted her latest sneak peek on Friday (December 28), a troll came for the actress with an ageist attack—and you can bet Union had the perfect response ready.
On Friday, December 28, the new mom shared a photo of herself sitting in what looks like a loose-fitting black sleeveless dress and chunky sneakers. She captioned the post: “All my unfinished work/projects from 2018 looking at me as I prepare my vision board for 2019 like ???And a glimpse of my upcoming @nyandcompany eat/pray/love/travel/chill collection available next week! Sneakers by @lining.official.”
But one user apparently wasn’t thrilled with Union’s look. Instead of keeping her thoughts to herself, she let the Bring It On star know it in the comments section: “Can you dress your age please,” they wrote.
Union—who knows her way around a clapback and, in fact, just took down a mommy-shamer on December 7—certainly wasn’t going to let that one slide. “Oh I’d loooove to hear what you think is age appropriate,” the 46-year-old actress responded. “Please gimme allll the age appropriate fashion advise I didn’t know I needed in my life.”
Union’s other followers had her back, too, dropping comments like, “Loving the look, I might steal it,” and “u look you good luv, u killed it ?.” She also got some sweet support from her friend, Khloé Kardashian, who commented this morning, “You look beautiful ?.”
Luckily, all that positivity seems to have shut the troll down. Here’s to Union’s spot-on clap-back talents, all the cute and comfortable-looking dresses a closet can hold, and Internet trolls knowing better in 2019.
Actress Gabrielle Union and husband Dwyane Wade have been incredibly forthright about their experience trying to have a child, from experiencing close to 10 miscarriages to the years-long battle with trying to get pregnant. “For three years, my body has been a prisoner of trying to get pregnant—I’ve either been about to go into an IVF cycle, in the middle of an IVF cycle, or coming out of an IVF cycle,” she wrote in her memoir. In November, they welcomed their first daughter, Kaavia James, who was born via surrogate. And in an exclusive interview with Oprah that aired on OWN, the Union-Wade parents recounted their struggle in the hopes of increasing awareness and visibility around infertility.
Union and Wade wanted to share their story to help those who are dealing with infertility “feel seen,” according to Union: “They feel like they’re not alone,” she told Oprah.
The couple recounted their experience going through IVF—having embryos implanted and take, only to miscarry; trying again and again, thinking “you work hard, you do the right things, you’re a good person,” as Union put it. She “could not let go of this idea of creating this life within me,” she added, feeling there was a “need to be pregnant for everybody, including myself.”
Wade would get concerned about Union: “I’m watching her do things to her body and to herself that it’s getting to the point where it’s not healthy,” he told Oprah. “And as I always told her: ‘I want this baby just as much as you do, but I married you, and you are the most important thing to me.’ So it came to a point where, you know, I started to feel a certain way about that because I didn’t want something to happen to her.'”
Eventually, the Union-Wades opted for a surrogate—though, Union said she still struggles with her feelings around using one: “Did I miss—did I fail in some kind of way? Did I—am I defective in some kind of deep, you know, just—am I defective in some kind of way? Am I less than in some kind of way? Am I less worthy in some kind of way?”
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The couple was involved throughout their surrogate’s entire pregnancy, “trying to feel as a part of the birth process as possible, since it’s happening outside of both of us. But it’s been a long—a long journey,” Union said. They were at the hospital when their surrogate was in labor, and described the experience of being in the delivery room with her and her husband as deeply bonding.
“Everyone’s journey is different. Everyone’s journey to surrogacy is different,” Union said. By being open about their journey, the Union-Wades want to spark hope in couples going through similar circumstances— and break some of the stigma that still surrounds infertility.
“So many people are suffering in silence and every time, when we’re candid and transparent about our journeys, no matter what those journeys are, you are allowing people to be seen and heard and empowered in ways that they’ve never been,” Union told Oprah.
Since the show aired on OWN, people have taken to social media to praise the couple for their honesty and for bringing attention to this incredibly personal subject.
“Oprah and @itsgabrielleu are really on OWN discussing Black women’s infertility, painful periods, and seeking help instead of suffering in silence. What a time,” Evette Dionne wrote on Twitter.
“WOW! I just watched @itsgabrielleu & @dwyanewade special on @owntv and I was soo inspired by their story!I laughed, I cried, I learned so much… my spirit was truly moved,” actress Naturi Naughton shared on Instagram.
“I appreciate how @itsgabrielleu showed us the potential challenges of egg freezing on @beingmaryjane and then shared so much about @DwyaneWade and her personal journey with IVF on @OWNTV. Thank you! Learned a lot from both,” another user posted on Twitter.
“So glad @DwyaneWade & @itsgabrielleu are addressing the boundaries people cross when a couple goes through IVF and other methods to have children. It’s still so dissapointing to know how much people don’t really know about basic genetics,” one user wrote.
