Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade opened up about some of the criticism they endured following the birth of their first daughter, Kaavia James Union Wade via surrogacy.
The celebrity couple sat down with Oprah Winfrey for an OWN special titled Oprah at Home with Gabrielle Union, Dwyane Wade & Their New Baby that debuted Saturday night.
“I think for me the most hurtful thing was once we had the baby, and everyone started talking about why is she in the bed holding the baby, why does she have a gown on, why is she acting that she just had a baby,” Wade told Oprah when she asked him about the backlash.
Shortly after Kaavia was born, the couple was photographed holding her and wearing hospital gowns. Union shared these photos on Instagram, and many women publicly criticized her for wearing a hospital gown even though she didn’t give birth.
And as Union explained, the couple was trying to bond with the newborn via the skin-to-skin method, which is a very common method of connecting with newborns.
“Our surrogate [who had just had a C-section] went into recovery, and we were able to go immediately into another hospital room,” she explained. “I had one of my New York & Company sweaters on, but skin-to-skin was kind of hard. And because the doctors kept coming in…it was easier to have skin to skin in a hospital gown.”
Union said people thought she was pretending she had the baby, or that she had even been hiding pregnancy.
“Baby, I just showed my abs in a bikini the other day for a reason. I wasn’t hiding a pregnancy,” she said. “I was trying to do skin to skin in the available space that was sterile and available.”
The couple, who have been married since August 2014, has every reason to be overjoyed by their new arrival. In the past Union has been open about having endured several heartbreaking miscarriages. Wade has three sons from previous relationships.
The full interview will re-air Sunday, December 9 on “SuperSoul Sunday” and will stream on Oprah’s Facebook at 11:00 a.m. ET/PT. In addition, the interview will be available on ‘Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations’ podcast beginning Monday, December 10 with part two available on Wednesday, December 12.
