At a lithe size two, the witty and bitingly sarcastic 42 year-old—now dressed in a trapeze black tee, skinny gray jeans and suede booties has spent the last seven hours getting barrel-curled, powdered, glossed, safety-pinned, taped, and photo-ready snatched. And in between takes, cracking church jokes about wearing little more than a Gucci bra as the Gospel soul of Yolanda Adams filled the room.
Gabrielle Monique Union lived a comfortable middle class existence in Omaha, Nebraska until her parents moved the family (she has two sisters) to California when she was in grade school. Her parents’ divorce, after 30 years together, would inform how she handled future relationships, including her amicable uncoupling with ex-NFL player Chris Howard back in 2006. “I have no idea what went on in their lives because they didn’t make it our business,” says Union of her parents’ dissolution. “[But] everyone contributes to the demise of a relationship and everyone contributes to a healthy relationship.”
In retrospect, she admires how her parents handled their situation. “You handle breakups with grace. Kids need to think well of both parents.”
Because she observed firsthand how relationship and life decisions can affect finances, she’s become the kind of doomsday prepper who squirrels away money. “I live so far below my means that if the career was taken away, I could get a job based on my level of education and my job skills, and I could still afford what I have. I plan ahead for the destruction, my financial ruin,” she laughs. “I might borrow some hot shit, but you’re gonna come to my house and be like, ‘What happened to that dope bag that cost as much as a home?’ I borrow that. I give it right back.”
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