Dwyane Wade credits his family for helping him through his battle with kidney cancer.
“I’m a really prideful man. I used to be mostly afraid of being vulnerable in front of my wife,” Wade, 43, shared in a video package aired on the Tuesday, March 11, episode of Today With Jenna & Friends. “My son Zaire said to me, he was watching me walk to the toilet, he was [saying] I’m Superman. He never saw me that way before. It sounds crazy because those are those which are speculated to be there in those moments of weakness, but you don’t want them to see you in that space.”
Wade shares Zaire, 23, and his daughter Zaya, 17, along with his ex-wife, Siohvaughn Funches. He and his wife, Gabrielle Union, went on to welcome their daughter Kaavia, 6, in 2018. Wade also shares his son Xavier, 11, with Aja Metoyer, and was the legal guardian of his nephew, Dahveon Morris, 21.
Within the video package, Wade recalled getting his health checked out after turning 40 and noticing health symptoms similar to a slow urine stream and stomach cramps. He was also aware of his family’s history with cancer, as his father and grandfather each battled prostate cancer.
“That’s after I knew that it was, like, really serious,” he stated. “You begin eager about all the things. You begin eager about not coming out of it.”
Wade underwent surgery for a kidney tumor in December 2023, which doctors later confirmed had been cancerous and only within the stage 1 phase. “I feel like one among the lucky ones,” he said within the clip.
While chatting with Jenna & Friends host Jenna Bush Hager on Tuesday, Wade noted that it was “tough” for his family and friends to see him weak amid his surgery recovery. “But they don’t know in that moment that they gave me a lot strength that I didn’t know that was capable of somebody on the skin giving me ‘cause I’m so prideful,” he gushed. “Lots of us are so prideful, but let the people in which are there for you. You’ve people in your life for a certain reason. And so, I allow them to in, and so they took care of me. And that’s why I’m here with you, that’s why I feel strong, that’s why I’m cancer-free — because I let those that love me, love.”
Along with thanking the doctors who helped him “every step of the way in which,” Wade also encouraged fans to be proactive about their health. “Lots of us are prideful. Lots of men in my life, a whole lot of men in my community, within the Black community, we’re so prideful,” he stated. “And likewise, too, if we’re not feeling anything, we’re like, ‘No, I’m good.’ But getting into, being proactive, saying, ‘Hey, I need to live an extended life. How do I try this?’”
At the top of the discussion, Wade wiped away a tear with a tissue after Bush Hager, 43, stated that his “vulnerability is strength and wonder.”
The previous NBA player broke news of his cancer battle during a January episode of “The Why” podcast. “I saw everybody show up for me and be there for me,” he said on the time. “In that means of my weakness, I discovered strength in my family, in my friends, in my group. I got here out of that and I’ve been doing things otherwise and I’ve been attacking life that way. I’m not waiting.”
Union, 52, called her husband’s cancer diagnosis “traumatic” during a February appearance on Jenna & Friends, adding, “That level of vulnerability, to undergo removal of chunk of his kidney and the healing that involved, he needed us to be OK along with his vulnerability. But greater than that, he needed to be OK along with his vulnerability. It was a challenge to provide grace and receive it.”
