Gabrielle Union

Gabrielle Monique Union-Wade (born October 29, 1972) is an American actress. She began her career in 1990s, appearing on television sitcoms, before landing supporting roles in an teen comedy films She's All That and 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). Her breakthrough role was in 2000 teen comedy film Bring It On, after which she was female lead in the short-lived CBS medical drama series, City of Angels later that year.

Gabrielle Union was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the daughter of Theresa (Glass), a phone company manager and social worker, and Sylvester E. Union, a business executive and military sergeant. She was raised Catholic and "to be an independent woman, standing on my own two feet, and that's the road I opted to take."Union's earliest memory is playing catch with her father. As a child, Union had no friends. According to Union, her mother taught her to have "a world perspective" and took her to a gay pride parade at the age of eight after the family moved to Pleasanton, California, where she was raised. Her parents divorced after 30 years of marriage and Union said, "They handled their divorce and our subsequent transition into a blended family with grace and dignity and respect. They always put us first and didn't involve us. I'm lucky that I can just mirror what my parents did and always put the kids first. They're pretty awesome, I'm lucky."

Union grew up with self-esteem issues relating to her appearance, as she believed growing up that blonde women were "the ideal of beauty" and "if I looked nothing like that, then I must be ugly." She longed to be acknowledged for her physical appearance. "I was never really looked upon as being pretty." On her college football memories, Union reflected, "In my family if you couldn’t talk Cornhusker football – that means knowing the black shirt defense, knowing the I-back formation – then you don’t get to have an opinion. When I first toured the Nebraska campus and I saw Turner Gill walk, I freaked out. That was like the biggest star-struck moment I’ve probably ever had in my life. But it's because I grew up in a household that always talked specifically Cornhusker football and Big 8 sports, at the time."

In 1992, at the age of 19, Union was attacked and raped at her part-time job at a Payless Store. Her attacker later turned himself in and was sentenced to 33 years in prison.

Union has insisted that she would not have survived her victimhood after her rape had it not been for watching Winfrey's talk show.

Winfrey stated Union's speech upon receiving the Fierce and Fearless Award, where Union admitted that she had once reveled "in gossip and rumors", inspired her because she "had never heard anyone be that honest in public or private about the competition and fierce drive to be seen and succeed in Hollywood."

Union met NFL player Chris Howard at a party in 1999. They married on May 5, 2001, and separated in October 2005. The divorce was finalized in 2006.

In 2009, Union began dating NBA player Dwyane Wade.

The couple married on August 30, 2014, in Miami, Florida.