During the July 9 episode of Today with Jenna & Friends, former NBA star Dwyane Wade revealed the nickname that his wife Gabrielle Union doesn’t like him to call her by.
Per PEOPLE, Wade, 43, touched on his wife’s nickname ick when he was revealing the big steps in their relationship.
“Me and Gabby’s first big step?” Wade, who tied the knot with Union in 2014, said. “Oh, I called her ‘Gabby,’ she would not like that. Me and Gab’s first big step.”
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“Oh you don’t call her Gabby?” co-host Jenna Bush Hager asked the three-time NBA champion. “No, no, no, no,” Wade replied. “It’s a long story.”
The 43-year-old, however, shared a nickname that his children call his wife by. “The kids, if you saw the sign we put up when I proposed to her, it said ‘Nickie’ and I kind of introduced her as Nickie,” he said.
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“Okay, her family calls her this and not Gabrielle Union the actress, that they probably have some previous conversations in that year about her. And so we just tried to go in with that family aspect.”
Wade also went ahead to disclose that introducing his children to his wife was the biggest step he took in their relationship.
“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 about his custody battle with his ex-wife Siohvaughn Funches. “And so they kind of just came with me. It was kind of like, ‘Alright, stepmom.’ She didn’t sign up to be a stepmom when we started dating so it was a little rough early on.”
Wade and Union share a 6-year-old daughter, Kaavia James. He also has three other children from his previous relationships, while he has also adopted his nephew.
“She’s been incredible,” Wade said about Union being a stepmother. “Especially, Zaya was so young. She was 3 years old at the time and now she’s 18 and so to be able to grow with each other, that’s kind of like her first kid. She’d never really raised a kid. I know we had the older boys at the time but her and Zaya really built a special bond.”
