‘It Was Rough When My Wife Gabrielle Union First Met The Kids”- Dwyane Wade

SOURCE: people.com

The former NBA player, 44, is guest co-hosting on Today with Jenna and Friends and spoke about introducing his kids to his now-wife during a Wednesday, July 9 episode. Asked by co-host Jenna Bush Hager what the “biggest step” was in his relationship, Wade replied that it was having her meet his kids.

“Introducing her to the kids would be the biggest step. Because you know, when it’s you and you, like it’s great,” Wade said. “And now you got to enter the kids into the relationship, and that was a little difficult because they were so young. And you don’t know the right time, you don’t know the right verbiage.”

Wade shares two kids, Zaire, 23, and Zaya with his ex-wife Siohvaughn Funches, and a son Xavier, 11, with Aja Metoyer. He shares daughter Kaavia, 6, with wife Gabrielle Union and is also the legal guardian of his nephew, Dahveon Morris, 21.

Bush Hager went on to ask Wade if he knew that Union was “the one” and if he waited to introduce her until he was sure.

“Yeah, I did. But at the same time, my kids are so a part of my life and I went through a very public custody battle with my kids as well,” Wade said. “And so they kind of just like came with me. So it was kind of like, alright, stepmom.”

“She didn’t sign up to be a stepmom necessarily when we first started dating. So it was a little rough early on, and I think that the kids, if you saw the sign that we put up when I proposed to her,” he continued. “It said ‘Nickie.’ And so I kind of introduced her as Nickie, as like, okay her family calls her this and not Gabrielle Union, the actress, that they probably had some previous conversations in their ear about her.”

The name “Nickie” comes Union’s middle name — Monique.

Bush Hager said that while she knows it was hard at first, she’s sure that it gives a lot of families hope because now Union is close with Wade’s kids.

“She’s been incredible. And you know, especially Zaya was so young. Zaya was about three years old at the time and now she’s 18,” Wade said of his older daughter. “And so to be able to grow with each other, it’s kind of like her first kid. She’d never really raised a kid.”

“And I know we had the older boys at the time but her and Zaya really built a special bond. And so it’s good to see how everything turned out, but in the beginning….it was rough,” he added.