Gabrielle Union And 9 Other Black Women Who’ve Gone The Surrogacy Route

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 04: Gabrielle Union attends “American Son” opening night at Booth Theatre on November 04, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)

On Wednesday, Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade welcomed their first child together, a baby girl born via surrogate. And while the new addition is his fourth kid, it has been a long time coming for Union, who at 46, has tried for years to have a child with Wade. She’s had numerous miscarriages, tried IVF, and even been told that she had a condition called adenomyosis that could be holding her back in some way. But Union hasn’t let that stop her. She has always been sure that she wanted motherhood, so much so that she even put it on her annual vision board many times, including this year.

“The only things that have not come to pass are a cosmetics line, Machu Picchu, and a baby,” she said back in February. “I’ve had the positive stick, but also a number of miscarriages, so maybe I just have to go more specific and show a woman with a human being traveling through her orifices. I’ll put those things back on this year’s board and see what happens.”

As we know, great things happened!

Union isn’t alone in her choice to try for a child via surrogate. According to the CDC, between 1999 and 2013, 30,927 of all “assisted reproductive technology cycles” used a gestational carrier, or surrogate. It’s not an easy choice to make, as finding a surrogate, paying them and dealing with the emotional aspect of everything can be a lot. But it worked for Union, as it has for a number of other celebrity women (and men) who had children via surrogate. That includes the likes of Kim Kardashian, Sarah Jessica Parker, Nicole Kidman, Ellen Pompeo, Lucy Lui and more. But what about Black women who’ve done it? Hit the flip to see nine other well-known women who decided to (or said they will soon) have a child with the help of a surrogate.

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US model Tyra Banks arrives at the 2018 American Music Awards on October 9, 2018, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Valerie MACON / AFP) (Photo credit should read VALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images)

Tyra Banks

The TV personality and businesswoman welcomed her son, York Banks Asla, with ex-boyfriend and photographer Erik Asla in 2016 via surrogacy.

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LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 27: Angela Bassett arrives at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Centennial Season’s Opening Night Concert and Gala: California Soul at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on September 27, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Angela Bassett

The Oscar-nominated actress and husband Courtney B. Vance became parents to fraternal twins Slater Josiah and Bronwyn Golden in 2006 with the help of a surrogate who carried the boy and girl.

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LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 14: Zoe Saldana attends the2018 Hammer Museum Gala In The Garden held on October 14, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic)

Zoe Saldana

While she didn’t fully come out and claim surrogacy as the route that brought she and husband Marco Perego their son Zen, Zoe Saldana did say this:

“This is something we’re being very meticulous about because of the process of how we completed our family,” she said in 2017 after he was born. “When we’re there, when the time comes and our third baby is a little older, and all the forces that helped us have him with us are comfortable, then we will share it, because we know it would be very positive and inspiring to many families.”

“Seeking alternative ways to start a family should be encouraged, should be empowered and I think we should spread that education, that information out there, when the time is right,” she added. “It makes me happy when we share aspects of ourselves that we feel very proud of.”

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NEW YORK, NY – JULY 16: Actress Sherri Shepherd visits BUILD to discuss the television show, ‘Trial & Error: Lady, Killer’ at Build Studio on July 16, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Mireya Acierto/WireImage)

Sherri Shepherd

Shepherd’s surrogacy experience should have been positive, but it didn’t end the best. She was open, publicly that is, about she and ex-husband Lamar Sally’s search for a surrogate. But when the whole process was underway, Sally filed for separation. She would divorce him, and Sally sought full legal and physical custody of their son, born via surrogate, allowing him to seek out child support from her and other money. She fought to not be considered the child’s mother, but was ruled in 2015 to be the other legal parent of their son, Lamar Sally, Jr., born in 2014.

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LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 05: GloZell Green attends the Premiere Of Disney’s “Ralph Breaks The Internet” on November 5, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Earl Gibson III/WireImage,)

GloZell Green

The famous YouTube personality didn’t mind getting serious and being open about her desire to have a child with husband Kevin Simon on her docuseries, Glo All In. Her wishes would come true, as the couple welcomed their daughter, born via surrogate in 2016, named O’Zell Gloriana De Green Simon.

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NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 02: LDF honorary chair Mellody Hobson on stage during the LDF 31th National Equal Justice Awards Dinner at Cipriani 42nd Street on November 2, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.)

Mellody Hobson

The well-known businesswoman and wife of film producer and director George Lucas welcomed a daughter with him in 2013, just months after the couple wed in June. The child’s name is Everest Hobson Lucas, born via surrogacy that August.

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NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 7: Grace Hightower attends Opening Of CMX CineBistro With Special Screenings Of BlacKkKlansman, City Lights & Pretty Baby at CMX CineBistro, NYC on November 7, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

Grace Hightower

Oscar winner Robert DeNiro and wife Grace Hightower share a son named Elliot that she delivered, but they also have a daughter named Helen Grace, born in 2011 via surrogate. Their daughter wasn’t DeNiro’s first foray into surrogacy, though. He has twin sons Aaron Kendrick and Julian Henry, born via a surrogate in 1995, with former longtime girlfriend and model Toukie Smith.

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UNIVERSAL CITY, CA – OCTOBER 30: Kandi Burruss attends “Never Heard” Movie Premiere at AMC CityWalk Stadium 19 at Universal Studios Hollywood on October 30, 2018 in Universal City, California. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Webber Films/ Riveting Entertainment)

Kandi Burruss

The Real Housewives of Atlanta star recently revealed that she and husband Todd Tucker found a surrogate who will deliver their next child, a girl, from embryos extracted during the IVF experience that conceived the couple’s son, Ace.

“We’ve decided we wanted to … get a surrogate,” she said to Us Weekly. “We did find someone, and right now we are in the process — you know it hasn’t been done — but we’re in the process.”

K. Michelle

Back in 2017, K. Michelle found a surrogate and was hoping that woman would carry twin girls for her. A year later, that didn’t occur, but she recently said at the taping of the Love and Hip Hop Hollywood reunion that she hadn’t completely axed the idea of using a surrogate again very, very soon.

“Next month I finally take these embryos and I decide if I put them in me or I do a surrogate,” she told host Nina Parker.

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Gabrielle Union And 9 Other Black Women Who've Had Kids Via Surrogate