Gabrielle Union is calling a timeout on one of Dwyane Wade’s pet names for her.
While guest-hosting “Jenna & Friends” on Wednesday, the NBA star offered a glimpse into his relationship with his actor wife while discussing reality star Kylie Jenner and Timotheé Chalamet’s Botting romance.
After Wade laughed at the younger couple’s Instagram following “Milestone” — a relationship benchmark Wade comically considered from a different era — host Jenna Bush Hager asked what his own “first step” with Union had been.
“Me and Gabby’s first big step?” Wade started to answer, before catching himself and writing down, “Ooh, I named her Gabby. She wouldn’t like that.”
Bush Hager, visibly puzzled, asked, “Don’t you call her Gabby?”
Wade then clarified that Union isn’t a fan of the name “Gabby” and said he needs to call her “Gabs,” which is “a long story.”
The basketball player let viewers in on a nickname he might use for his wife as he described their “first big step” as a couple, which involved Union meeting Wade’s children.
“The kids, if you saw the sign that we put up when I proposed to her, it said ‘Nickie,’ and so I kind of introduced her as Nickie,” he said, explaining that the nickname is derived from Union’s middle name, Monique.
Wade also spoke lovingly about his stepmotherhood, calling her “amazing.” The two also have a daughter together, Kaavia, born in 2018.
