Gabrielle Union refuses to cover up at age 50.
During a recent interview, the actress and wife of NBA legend Dwyane Wade opened up about critics who say she’s too “old” to wear swimsuits — and her response was hilarious.
Union, who is the cover star of the July issue of “Who What Wear,” said she might just wear a thong swimsuit in the casket.
“Somebody said, ‘You’re old enough to be somebody’s grandma, why are you still in — like wearing swimsuits?’” Union recalled on the “Who What Wear with Hilary Kerr” podcast while discussing aging in Hollywood.
“I’m like, ‘First of all, they’re not just swimsuits. They are thongs. And you’re gonna see these cheeks until my ass literally falls off, and I might just wear a bikini in the casket.
“I don’t know. That just might be for you, for that one commenter… This is for you bitch… It’s just gonna be like, me in a thong, like, ass-up in the casket.”
Union is unapologetic about her body, aging and other taboo topics in Hollywood on social media and in interviews.
In August 2022, Union shared a slow-motion video of her modeling a string bikini while under an outdoor shower on a boat.
“That girl…. Is 49,” she wrote at the time, when she and Wade were on their annual summer vacation, the “Wade World Tour.”
Elsewhere during the interview, Union discussed age and her new Netflix rom-com, “The Perfect Find,” — in which she plays 40-year-old Jenna, a fashion mogul who puts her career and life on the line for a relationship with a younger man.
“Personally, my husband is nine years younger than me and honestly I didn’t take him seriously for a very long time,” Union said of Wade. “I was like, he is very sweet and he’s fun but — and then it just kind of kept going and the more I got to know him and understand his childhood and what he survived and that he’s been on his own since he was 15.
“He had to become an adult way sooner than I did. In many ways, I am still quite naive and green and in many ways, he’s Father Time. He’s been a parent for over half his life and started as a teenager. I became a parent at 46, and I’m asking him questions.”
Union and Wade welcomed a baby girl, via surrogate, on November 7, 2018, named Kaavia James Wade.
She is the first child for Union and Wade’s fourth.
They welcomed their daughter four years after they tied the knot in August 2014 in a lavish Miami ceremony.
“[At] 35, they [Hollywood] start treating you like you’ve got osteoporosis,” Union said. “You start becoming invisible and it’s a weird, empty feeling to feel like you’re disappearing in front of your own eyes. You start taking on the same attitude as [a] society that believes that you lack value.
“I don’t want anyone else to feel that invisibility and that sense of worthlessness, because the only people that we need to validate us is us. And sometimes, the more that you validate your damn self, the more people are like, ‘Yeah, mhmm. Yep!’
“We need to boldly take up space and boldly claim and acknowledge our own beauty in all that we do, instead of waiting. Claim you, whether it’s you fall in love with a younger dude… you love you more than anybody else loves you.”