Gabrielle Union is the woman of the hour. The debut of her new television series, “Being Mary Jane” aired on BET this week, with more than 5 million viewers.
Union is also newly engaged to her longtime beau, basketball player Dwyane Wade, and her engagement has been the topic of conversation during her promotion of the show. Union has been very open about her relationship, the engagement story and even dropped a bit of relationship advice recently on the LA red-carpet premiere of “Being Mary Jane”.
In an interview with GLAMOUR magazine, Union shared some of her relationship tips to navigate a successful relationship.
Here are a few of them:
DO forget your “type.” It worked for me: “When I met Dwyane, his “résumé” looked like crap: athlete, going through a divorce, nine years younger than me. None of that screamed, “Let’s have a lasting relationship.” Then, after I had a heart-crushing breakup with yet another immature jerk, I thought, it can’t be any worse if I date a fetus. Let’s just see what happens. Turned out he’d been on his own since he was 15. He had wisdom that comes with facing an insane amount of adversity. He’s sweet, funny, honest about his shortcomings. When I put my preconceived notions to the side, I found someone cool.”
DON’T put up with a friend-versus-boyfriend tug-of-war: “Some friends act possessive and say, “You’re not spending enough time with me.” Huh? Remember when we made our vision boards and the dude was in the middle? You’re supposed to be happy for me. Thankfully, my girls are like, “High-five!” And D likes to be around them too. If there’s weirdness, either something’s wrong with the friends—or the boy. Investigate. And sift accordingly.”
DO show him your feelings. Daily: “Dwyane generally gets up before I do to go to the gym, and he’s never left without kissing me and telling me he loves me. As for me, I am complimentary to the point where I am almost a little Chester the Molester-y. I think he’s so delicious. Watching him get out of the shower never gets old. Never. It’s not like he ever wonders what I’m thinking, but usually he’s thinking, she needs a cold shower!”
DON’T write off an ex (or get back together) without really thinking it through: “When you’re debating whether to go backward or forward, you have to look at the original issue. [When Dwyane and I broke up briefly in 2013], it was because of distance and scheduling. I finished filming the show, then I flew to Vegas right away to start shooting “Think Like a Man Too”. I couldn’t take time off, and I missed some quality togetherness we desperately needed. Over the summer, I reassessed priorities. I’d always wanted an awesome career with back-to-back projects, but I realized I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my relationship for it. Moving forward, I decided my work schedule has to make sense for our family. Bottom line: If an issue’s a deal breaker, it’s a deal breaker. If your relationship isn’t something you’re willing to give up and you can compromise, do so.”
