American actress, Gabrielle Union has revealed that she felt entitled to cheat on her first husband because their marriage was dysfunctional.
The 50-year-old actress said her marriage to the ex-NFL player – who she wed in 2001 but split from in 2005 – was “dysfunctional from day one” and was desperate for “validation” from other men during the troubled relationship.
She told Dax Shepard on his ‘Armchair Expert’ podcast about seeing other men while married to the 47-year-old sportsman: “In our first marriage, neither one of us felt like the marriage should get in the way of our dating.
“A part of it was like keeping up with his activities, like, ‘Oh, that’s what you’re doing? You’re going to feel this one,’ and I just felt entitled to it as well… in hindsight, yes, I absolutely needed something from them (other men) that I was not providing for myself, and neither was my marriage, but I think I provided something for them too.
The ‘Bring It On’ actress added she was paying all the bills during their marriage which added to her feeling she was entitled to cheat.
She said: “Like my dad before me, whoever has the most gets to do whatever the hell they want is what I thought: It was just dysfunctional from day one.
“I wish I had more guilt for some of that. It was such a stupid relationship that should have never got out of the dating phase.”
Gabrielle and Chris split in 2005 and she said the financial weight of the split motivated her to get a prenup for her second marriage to her current husband, 40-year-old former NBA player Dwyane Wade, with whom she had daughter Kaavia via surrogate in 2018.
She is also stepmother to his three other children.
Gabrielle Union also recalled a friend gifted the actress and her ex-husband a therapy session where the therapist recommended the two separate because they had “nothing in common.”
She also added that the therapist said, “The one thing you guys have in common is other people so why don’t you just be with other people?”
She said:
“In my first marriage, neither one of us felt like the marriage should get in the way of our dating. A part of it was like keeping up with his activities, like, ‘Oh, that’s what you’re doing?
You’re going to feel this one.’ And I just felt entitled to it as well. I was paying all the bills. I was working my a** off and I felt like that’s what comes, the spoils of riches. It was such a st¥pid relationship that should have never got out of the dating phase.”