Gabrielle Union has always wanted to be a mother, and she never gave up hope, even after suffering nine miscarriages.
Now the she and her husband, NBA legend Dwayne Wade, are parents to newborn daughter named Kaavia, whom they welcomed via surrogacy on November 7, Gabrielle said it was well worth the pain.
"I've always been of the mindset, because this is what people tell you: You work hard, you do the right things, you're a good person, it will happen for you — eventually," she told Oprah in a new interview, which will air on Dec. 8.
The actress said she felt pulled toward pregnancy, which is why she tried to have a baby the natural way.
"I could not let go of this idea of creating life within me, that I could feel, that tied me to [her husband], that he could be a part of, that the world could be a part of," she said. "I'm not letting myself and all these people down. I need to have — I need to be pregnant for everybody, including myself."
Dwyane, naturally, supported her through the whole thing.
Now that she is a mother, she said it's as difficult as she imagined.
"It looked exactly as it is. I saw motherhood and parenthood with very realistic eyes. It looked hard," she said.
As is unfortunately the case in these times, Gabrielle also had to deal with online trolls, who criticized the couple's use of a surrogate.
"I think for me the most hurtful thing was once we had our baby, and everyone started to talk about, 'Why is she in the bed holding a baby, why she got a gown on, why she acting like she just had a baby?'" the NBA star said.
Dwyane even took paternity leave after the child was born.
"Having a surrogate carry our baby, I wasn't able to be like, 'Hey baby, daddy's here,'" he said. "To have these conversations, so she can hear me, so we can sing to her, so we can read to her. So this connection that we both needed, it had to happen right away. And for me it was like, I've always done things my way.
"And they expect my wife to take off, right, why not expect me to take off as well? We're parents. We're doing this together. There's no she does this, I do this. No, we do this together. So for me it was a no-brainer."