Gabrielle Union revealed that she felt that it was her right to cheat on her ex-husband Chris Howard during an appearance on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, released on Monday, January 2. The actress, 50, said that her marriage with Chris, 47, was “dysfunctional from day one.” Gabrielle opened up about how she felt that she felt “entitled” during the interview.
The 10 Things I Hate About You actress said she struggled with “focus issues,” and she “was not getting Wife of the Year awards” during her marriage to the former NFL player. “In our first marriage, neither one of us felt like the marriage should get in the way of our dating,” she said. “A part of it was like keeping up with his activities, like, ‘Oh, that’s what you’re doing? You’re going to feel this one,’ and I just felt entitled to it as well.”
Gabrielle continued and said that she felt like the fact that she was the main breadwinner gave her some of the right to to be unfaithful. “I was paying all the bills, I was working my a** off, and I felt like that’s what comes, the spoils of riches,” she said. “Like my dad before me, whoever has the most gets to do whatever the hell they want is what I thought.”
She continued and said the relationship “should have never gotten out of the dating phase,” and that they attended couples’ therapy, where they were told the same thing. “The one thing you both have in common is other people. So why don’t you just go be with other people?” she recalled the therapist telling them.
It wasn’t just the “dysfunctional” relationship though that led to the infidelity. Gabrielle also said that she felt like she was seeking “validation” from “certain kinds of guys” during the marriage. “That made me feel like I was worthy and good and valuable and deserving,” she explained. “In hindsight, yes, I absolutely needed something from them that I was not providing for myself and neither was my marriage.”
Gabrielle and Chris were married from 2001 to 2005, and they finalized their divorce in 2006. Since the split, she married former NBA player Dwyane Wade, 40, in 2014, and the couple have an adorable four-year-old daughter Kaavia James.