Gabrielle Union is rewriting the rules of modern marriage, and her latest revelation of canceling 50/50 is turning heads. In a candid new interview, the 51-year-old actress and author opened up about abandoning her long-held insistence on a rigid 50/50 split with husband Dwyane Wade, calling the concept a “trauma response” she no longer needs.
Union, who wed NBA legend Dwyane Wade in 2014, famously championed equality in relationships, demanding equal financial, emotional, and spiritual contributions from her partner. “I meant that 50/50 or bust,” she admitted. But years of therapy and self-reflection led her to a breakthrough: The mantra was rooted in fear, not fairness.
“There’s a lot of days I have 10% and need him to be 90%. Days I don’t have shit and need him to be 100%,” Union shared. “That 50/50 mindset? It’s saying, ‘I won’t be vulnerable enough to trust you with my heart, my cash, anything.'”
The shift wasn’t easy. When Union first asked Wade to take over their mortgage payments solo, she was gripped by panic. “I was crying, shaking, full of anxiety,” she recalled. Wade’s response? Calm reassurance. “He said, ‘You insisted on [50/50]. I thought it made you feel better.’ And I realized—it did. Until it didn’t.”
In May 2023, The actress had a chitchat with Bloomberg’s Idea Generation about why she feels like she’s financially conservative.
“It’s weird to say I’m head of household because we split everything 50/50 in this household. I think I just have more responsibilities for my money,’ Union said. ‘So, I get nervous: “Oh God, that movie didn’t open, what does that mean? Am I going to have enough to hold everybody up?”‘
She added, ‘And I’m trying to find peace in the journey, not using my anxiety and scarcity mindset to be my engine, which is hard.”
Now, for Union, whose past relationships and public battles with infertility and betrayal have shaped her guardedness, surrendering control was revolutionary. “Letting him handle the mortgage wasn’t about money. It was about me saying, ‘I’m safe.'”
The shift, she says, has strengthened their marriage. “It brought us closer,” Gabrielle Union explained. “It’s about being vulnerable enough to be open, to know that I’m okay as his wife. He’s okay as my husband.”
