Gabrielle Union has credited Patti Labelle with pushing her to meet Dwyane Wade.
The Being Mary Jane star started dating the NBA basketballer in 2009 and although the couple had an on-again, off-again relationship for several years, they tied the knot in 2014.
While Gabrielle and Dwyane are now happily married, the actress has now admitted that she wasn’t interested in pursuing the sportsman until legendary soul singer Patti had her thinking differently.
“I had a boyfriend when I met him. And Dwyane, he’s a bit younger than me. So it felt like he was 12, he was super shy and quiet,” she said during an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden on Monday night (23Oct17). “And I had brought Patti LaBelle (to an event) and she was like, ‘Girl you better drop that zero and get you a hero!’ So, it was Miss Patti that nudged me in the direction.”
Gabrielle, 44, added that it definitely wasn’t love at first sight when she first met Dwyane, and she wasn’t impressed by his moves. At the time, she felt the 35-year-old was just a “sober guy in the bar” and a “little lurky”.
“When I first saw him, he was just watching us from up above and we were dancing on (the dancefloor below),” she laughed. “But none of it felt like, ‘Yeah this is the guy I’m going to spend the rest of my life with.'”
