Gabrielle Union Explains Why She Got A Prenup

Gabrielle Union isn't afraid to rely on herself if necessary. Before the actress married star basketball player Dwyane Wade, she asked him for a prenup. Gabrielle Union revealed why being seen as independent and strong was important to her in a new interview with Yahoo! Style. She said,

For women in Hollywood, when they’re coupling, everything is about the brand. Everything is about latching on to a rising star, so you can kick your heels up. That’s never been my story, ever. I make sure to let people know all of the hard work that’s gone into my career.

In the interview, Union reminisced about her college days at UCLA, taking student loans, eating Top Ramen, and living below her means before making a name for herself in Hollywood in hit movies like Bring It On and on television, most recently on BET's Being Mary Jane. Because of her work to get to where she is now, Union said that she asked Wade for a prenup to make it clear that she was not attaching herself to his stardom, relying instead on her own.

She continued to Yahoo!,

Now that it’s time to get married to a man who happens to play basketball and has done well for himself, I want to make it clear that I have in no way hitched my wagon to his star. I have my own wagon and star.

Last February, Union made her prenup intentions first known on The Arsenio Hall Show, long before tying the knot with Wade in August. "I've never seen Dwyane balance a checkbook," she said in February. "I have to protect my stuff." Regardless of Wade being a wildly popular and commercially successful athlete — he was even ranked on Forbes ' list of the 100 most powerful celebrities in 2014 — Union is famous in her own right for her acting career, as well as her work in activism.

Along with scoring big roles in movies and now on her own TV show, Union has also been a strong advocate for victims of rape and sexual assault. Last summer, she supported an alleged rape victim from Texas on her social media sites. She also publicly supported a petition for Trayvon Martin back in 2012. As she's shown in the past, she is able to not only further her career, but also use her stardom as a platform to get her personal voice and opinion out there to raise awareness on issues she feels strongly about. And now, she's making her celebrity voice even stronger by tying it to her personal life.

It's a positive thing that Union is working on developing and strengthening her own brand rather than attaching herself to her husband's. It implies that she sees herself as much more than someone's wife — she sees herself as her own person in both her career and relationship. And whether she and Wade ride off in the sunset together forever or not, her decision has given her the confidence to say that she will still be her own person.

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