"You're finally a mother at 46!"
That's how Oprah Winfrey kicks off a conversation with Gabrielle Union in an interview for an upcoming OWN special called "Oprah at Home with Gabrielle Union, Dwayne Wade and their New Baby," according to People. Gabrielle's husband, Dwayne Wade, appears in the segment as well, supporting Gabrielle as she delves into some heavy emotions around the subject of fertility.
The couple welcomed their first child together — a daughter, Kaavia James — on Nov. 7 via surrogate. As the actress reveals to Oprah on the show, her journey to motherhood was a bit complicated.
Gabrielle suffers from a very painful, uterine form of endometriosis called Adenomyosis that causes a high rate of miscarriages. She wasn't diagnosed with it until many years after she began trying to conceive, which she recalled in her memoir, "We're Going to Need More Wine." She also suffered "eight or nine" miscarriages.
"For three years, my body has been a prisoner of trying to get pregnant — I've either been about to go into an IVF cycle, in the middle of an IVF cycle or coming out of an IVF cycle," she wrote in the book.
After the emotional and physical pain of those experiences, Gabrielle was understandably overjoyed when she was able to use a surrogate to have Kaavia.
The happy news wasn't met with an equally positive response, though.
After the couple announced the birth of their baby on social media, sharing photos of the two of them cradling Kaavia in a hospital bed, they noticed a backlash from commenters who criticized the setting of the photos.
"Everyone started talking about why she acting like she just had a baby," Dwayne — who has three sons and is also raising his nephew — recalls as his wife wells up with visible emotion.
"I'm already getting choked up. It's still hard to let go," she says, clearly still wishing she could have carried Kaavia herself.
Speaking to People last year, Gabrielle explained how her move towards using a surrogate was sparked by the relationships she developed with her stepchildren.
"I never wanted kids. Then I became a stepmom, and there was no place I'd rather be than with them," she said at the time. "So then I thought, 'Well maybe I might be good at this, and maybe this is something I want to explore. And I'm madly in love with this dude, so [having a baby] is something we could look into."
"Oprah at Home with Gabrielle Union, Dwayne Wade and their New Baby," airs on OWN on Dec. 8.