Cape Town - Gabrielle Union has revealed her personal struggle with fertility in her new book, We’re Going to Need More Wine.
In an excerpt acquired by PEOPLE, the 44-year-old reveals that she’s suffered eight to nine miscarriages while trying to conceive with her husband, NBA basketball player Dwyane Wade.
“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,” Gabrielle writes.
The Being Mary Jane star has been married to Wade since 2014 but they’ve been together since 2009. In 2013 they split up briefly, but got back together.
She is a stepmother to the 33-year-old’s four kids: 16-year-old Dahveon Morris (who’s actually Dwyane’s nephew), Zaire (15), Zion (10) and three-year-old Xavier, whom Dwyane had with another woman while he and Gabrielle were split up.
“I never wanted kids,” she told PEOPLE. “Then I became a stepmom, and there was no place I’d rather be than with them.”
Back in 2015, Gabrielle spoke to Redbook Magazine about her struggle with having children but hasn’t spoken before about the heartbreak she’s had to endure during her miscarriages.
She also discussed the shame that childless career women have to endure.
“There’s a certain amount of shame that is placed on women who have perhaps chosen a career over starting a family younger.”
“The penance for being a career woman is barrenness. You feel like you’re wearing a scarlet letter,” she explains in the Redbook article.
Sources: PEOPLE, Redbook Magazine, Metro