Dwyane Wade credits his family for helping him through his battle with kidney cancer.
“I’m a very prideful man. I was mostly afraid of being vulnerable in front of my wife,” Wade, 43, shared in a video package aired on the Tuesday, March 11, episode of Today With Jenna & Friends. “My son Zaire said to me, he was watching me walk to the bathroom, he was [saying] I’m Superman. He never saw me that way before. It sounds crazy because those are the ones that are supposed to be there in those moments of weakness, but you don’t want them to see you in that space.”
Wade shares Zaire, 23, and his daughter Zaya, 17, with his ex-wife, Siohvaughn Funches. He and his wife, Gabrielle Union, went on to welcome their daughter Kaavia, 6, in 2018. Wade also shares his son Xavier, 11, with Aja Metoyer, and was the legal guardian of his nephew, Dahveon Morris, 21.
In the video package, Wade recalled getting his health checked out after turning 40 and noticing health symptoms such as a slow urine stream and stomach cramps. He was also aware of his family’s history with cancer, as his father and grandfather both battled prostate cancer.
Dwyane Wade Says He Had ’40 Percent’ of Kidney Removed for Cancerous Tumor
“That’s when I knew that it was, like, really serious,” he stated. “You start thinking about everything. You start thinking about not coming out of it.”
Wade underwent surgery for a kidney tumor in December 2023, which doctors later confirmed had been cancerous and only in the stage 1 phase. “I feel like one of the lucky ones,” he said in the clip.
While chatting with Jenna & Friends host Jenna Bush Hager on Tuesday, Wade noted that it was “tough” for his family and friends to see him weak amid his surgery recovery. “But they don’t know in that moment that they gave me so much strength that I didn’t know that was capable of someone on the outside giving me ‘cause I’m so prideful,” he gushed. “A lot of us are so prideful, but let the people in that are there for you. You have people in your life for a certain reason. And so, I let them in, and they took care of me. And that’s why I’m here with you, that’s why I feel strong, that’s why I’m cancer-free — because I let the ones that love me, love.”
In addition to thanking the doctors who helped him “every step of the way,” Wade also encouraged fans to be proactive about their health. “A lot of us are prideful. A lot of men in my life, a lot of men in my community, in the Black community, we’re so prideful,” he stated. “And also, too, if we’re not feeling anything, we’re like, ‘No, I’m good.’ But going in, being proactive, saying, ‘Hey, I want to live a long life. How do I do that?’”
At the end of the discussion, Wade wiped away a tear with a tissue after Bush Hager, 43, stated that his “vulnerability is strength and beauty.”
The former NBA player broke news of his cancer battle during a January episode of “The Why” podcast. “I saw everybody show up for me and be there for me,” he said at the time. “In that process of my weakness, I found strength in my family, in my friends, in my group. I came out of that and I’ve been doing things differently and I’ve been attacking life that way. I’m not waiting.”
Union, 52, called her husband’s cancer diagnosis “traumatic” during a February appearance on Jenna & Friends, adding, “That level of vulnerability, to go through removal of a good chunk of his kidney and the healing that involved, he needed us to be OK with his vulnerability. But more than that, he needed to be OK with his vulnerability. It was a challenge to give grace and receive it.”
