Gabrielle Union Only Goes to the Gym Because 'There Are People Who Cannot Wait to Circle Your Fat'
Gabrielle Union may be married to an NBA star, but she has no interest in working out.
“I’m not one of those people, like, ‘I can’t start my day without it.’ Nope. I can actually start my day beautifully, sleeping in, eating some pancakes,” the Being Mary Jane star, 44, tells Health for their September cover.
The only reason she goes is to avoid the body shamers — though once she gets to the gym a whole different side of Union appears.
“Knowing that there are people who cannot wait to circle your fat and draw an arrow to it keeps me in the gym,” she says. “So between fearing health issues and fearing ‘Stars, they’re just like us! Look at their cellulite!’ — that keeps me in the gym.”
“Then when I get in there, I get competitive and won’t leave. I basically have the Olympics happening in my mind with strangers. They don’t realize we’re competing, but I usually take gold. Mainly because they’ve left.”
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But even if the social media body shamers come for her, Union doesn’t get too bothered — after some light stalking, that is.
“If it kinda strikes a nerve, I need to know who said it,” she says. “I deep dive into their social media. No one who’s ever said anything super negative to me has an amazing life. Once I realized that, it’s different than, like, J.Lo saying, ‘Her squat form wasn’t right.’ Because she would know. But you, in your mom’s basement, really?”
Her idea of looking her best, and her sexiest, is actually very simple.
“Out there on the deck, when I have a bikini on, holding a cold beer, and my husband’s there. I’m not in hair and makeup. I’m just chilling at home,” she says.
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And Union, who is a stepmom to husband Dwyane Wade‘s three kids from former relationships and his nephew, knows there’s no need to feel bad about not being perfect, or not having it all, because it’s just not possible.
“I don’t think so. A mother, to have it all, has to somehow also provide a check, also be superfreak Kama Sutra down to the ground, be a size double zero, be super present in the PTA but still putting in extra hours at work. It is impossible. There are literally not enough hours,” she says. “To me, having it all is not having it all and it being OK.”
