Dwyane Wade Was Hesitant To Talk About Zaya’s Journey In Doc

Former NBA star Dwyane Wade sparked a national conversation about parenting when he announced that his 12-year-old child identifies as female and goes by the name Zaya. On February 11, he told talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, “Me and my wife, Gabrielle Union, we are proud parents of a child in the LGBTQ+ community and we’re proud allies as well. We take our roles and responsibilities as parents very seriously.”

In the middle of this journey, Wade was filming the ESPN documentary D. Wade: Life Unexpected, which premieres Sunday, February 23. 

On February 18, Wade told Robin Roberts on Good Morning America that he was hesitant about sharing Zaya’s journey.

“I struggled on how much I wanted to talk about in the doc,” Dwyane revealed. “I actually didn’t talk about it a lot. But, I knew if I put it in the doc at all, it would be a big conversation. And we struggled with that from, ‘Yes, we understand that our daughter’s 12 years old.’ We struggled with what people would say about a 12-year-old making a decision about her life. But we also know our child.”

He continued, “So we sit back and we say. ‘You know what?’ As parents, it’s our job to sit back and figure out and find the information that we can. And we’ve sat down together as a family. We’ve reached out to as many people as we can. We’ve researched as many things as we can to try to help not only our family but other people in this journey and along the way.”

RELATED: Zaya Wade Speaks Out About Identifying As Female

He also added, “Because one thing we do know as a family, we’ve [gone] through so many different things that other people in other families go through and they say, ‘Thank you, guys, for speaking out on it. Thank you, guys, for being a face and a voice of this because we can’t.’ And that’s what we’re trying to do. We know there are other families that is dealing with their kid finding themselves and learning who they are.”

Watch the clip below:

In the wake of Zaya’s announcement, Wade and his wife Gabrielle Union have focused on all the love they have received for supporting Zaya. On February 11, Gabrielle Union wrote on Twitter, “Huge huge huge THANK YOU to everyone whose dms I slid into, friends, & family who provided information, resources, love & encouragement. We are humble LGBTQ+ allies with ALOT to learn & grateful for all the support. We encourage yall to check us as needed.”

Later that day, Union posted a video of Zaya with the caption, “She’s compassionate, loving, whip smart and we are so proud of her. It’s Ok to listen to, love & respect your children exactly as they are. Love and light good people.”

See below:

Wade also has two sons, Zaire, who has also publicly supported Zaya,18, Xavier, 6, and has custody of his nephew, Dahveon, 17. In November of 2018, he and Gabrielle welcomed their first daughter Kaavia James on November 10, 2018, via a surrogate.