Gabrielle Union is calling for a timeout on one of Dwyane Wade’s pet names for her.
While guest-hosting “Jenna & Friends” on Wednesday, the NBA star offered a glimpse into his relationship with his actor wife while discussing reality star Kylie Jenner and actor Timotheé Chalamet’s budding romance.
After Wade laughed about the younger couple’s Instagram follow “milestone” — a relationship benchmark Wade found to be comically from a different era — host Jenna Bush Hager asked him what his own “first step” with Union had been.
“Me and Gabby’s first big step?” Wade started to answer, before catching himself and noting, “Ooh, I called her Gabby. She would not like that.”
Bush Hager, visibly puzzled, asked, “You don’t call her Gabby?”
Wade then clarified that Union isn’t a fan of the name “Gabby” and said he has to call her “Gabs,” which is “a long story.”
The basketball player did let viewers in on a nickname he is allowed to use for his wife while describing their “first big step” as a couple, which involved Union meeting Wade’s children.
“The kids, if you saw the sign that we put up when I proposed to her, it said ‘Nickie,’ and so I kind of introduced her as Nickie,” he said, explaining that the nickname is derived from Union’s middle name, Monique.
Wade also spoke lovingly about Union as a stepmother, calling her “incredible.” The two also have one daughter together, Kaavia, born in 2018.