Gabrielle Union is leaning on her husband, Dwyane Wade, in the most tender way possible — and she wants people to understand exactly what it has looked like.

The actress, 53, opened up about her grief and her marriage at the 2026 Tiffany & Co. Blue Book Gala in New York on April 16, two weeks after the death of her father, Sylvester "Cully" Union Jr., at age 81. "You know, my dad and my husband were very, very close," she told People in the exclusive interview, per Yahoo News. "I don't know, we just go through pictures and reminisce, and he's just physically there when I'm crumbling."

Gabrielle's father had been living with dementia and was placed in memory care in 2023. He died on April 3, 2026, at the age of 81. In an Instagram tribute the actress shared after his death, she described the slow erosion that anyone who has loved someone with dementia would recognize.

"No matter how much you think you know about dementia, nothing prepares you for the painfully slow disappearing of your loved one," she wrote. "First it's repeating words or forgetting little things here or there, then BOOM, he can't swallow or walk. The them that you know gets smaller and smaller. You hold out hope for sustained eye contact or a smile; even a hand squeeze can make you feel like they could come back to you 'normal' at any second. It's brutal and it's what he experienced, but it wasn't who he was."

Cully, she said, was "the life of the party" and a lifelong Nebraska fan who loved music, traveling, and his extended family. Last October, Gabrielle celebrated his 81st birthday with a carousel of family photos featuring Wade, her sister Tracy Union, and other relatives gathered at his bedside. "His eyes lit up when he saw me and @dwyanewade standing at his bedside," she wrote. "He's still here and that's enough."

Gabrielle has been candid about how the financial weight of caring for an elderly parent shaped her professional decisions in recent years. At the American Black Film Festival in June 2025, she said the costs of nursing care made her more strategic about which acting roles she accepted. "You know, nursing homes, what's covered by insurance, what's not, home health aids — like that all adds up," she said. "Having to really be cognizant of an additional output, I have to go where the money goes."

It is a layer of celebrity life rarely spoken about openly, and one that resonated widely with Black families who have walked the same road.