Our next guest is an actress and bestselling
author who just wrote a new children's book.
Please welcome Gabrielle Union.
[CLAPPING]
Yay.
Yeah, let me give you applause.
I have applause here.
[SOUND BITE OF CHEERING, APPLAUSE]
There.
Just to make it--
yeah.
It's so good to see you.
I haven't seen you in a while.
And this is what I've heard.
I've heard that that-- well I knew that Dwayne, your husband,
retired.
But I hear that maybe you're ready for this quarantine
to end so he could go do some other things.
I need the vaccine yesterday.
I mean, this is, like, his dream.
He retired so he could be with the family.
So he's living the dream.
He's super well adjusted to this new normal.
And this is my nightmare.
To be honest, Ellen, it's actually my nightmare.
Oh, well, I bet a lot of women would
love to have that nightmare.
He's a great guy.
And he was on the show recently, and talking
about your daughter, Zaya, and her transition.
And I know this is silly to say, because who doesn't love
their children unconditionally-- but I guess a lot of people
don't--
but it's so amazing how supportive you've both been.
Yeah, I mean, to us, it's a little odd
to get any kind of recognition for doing what you're
supposed to do, which is love, and accept, and embrace
your kids.
So it's odd to get recognition for that.
But unfortunately, there are so many people who just don't.
They just don't.
And so many people who really truly feel like their kids
are disposable.
If they're not perfect images of them, they're not interested.
And it's heartbreaking.
So for us, we're just doing what is natural to us,
and loving her.
There she is.
There's our girl.
[CHUCKLES]
But yeah, we just want happy, healthy, compassionate kids.
So that's what we-- we try to lead with that.
And Zaya is very, very lucky to have both of you as parents.
And it is unfortunate that a lot of people
have children thinking they can mold them and make them
who they want them to be, and have
a certain idea of what they're supposed to turn out like.
But they all turn out different.
And speaking of that, you have a new baby
that I've seen pictures of--
OK, so it's the most adorable baby,
and yet I've never seen a more serious baby in my life.
She's like the George Carlin of babies.
That is our little nugget.
She's pure comedy, but absolutely dead serious.
She's just stone face.
She is unbothered and unimpressed at all times.
Exactly.
Yeah, so she has her own Instagram.
How many followers does she have, like a million?
I think she's at 1.2.
Yeah.
1.2 million.
Andy--
Yeah.
How many Instagram followers do you have?
Not that.
I don't know.
But definitely nowhere close.
How old is the baby?
A year and a half, right?
She's almost a year and a half, yeah.
Yeah.
Year and a half.
Good for her.
[CHUCKLES]
He's very angry.
So she's a year and a half almost.
And she jumps into a pool.
Now, has she had swimming lessons?
Was that something that you let her do?
Yeah, we started swim at, like, five months old.
So she's had some experience now.
Oh yeah.
Look at her go.
Wow.
She looked like a little sperm.
I can jump in the water.
Just going.
Just like a little sperm.
Andy, she said she looked like a little sperm.
[ALL CHUCKLES]
Just like that.
That's what a sperm swims like, like that.
Exactly.
She really wasn't using her arms.
So it was really just all her little legs.
Right.
I want to hear about the children's book, Ellen.
OK, Andy.
I'll ask her about the children's book.
Let's talk about the children's book.
Yes.
"Welcome to the Party."
Yeah.
Why did you want to write it?
You know, we wanted to be able to show Kaav--
aw, there she is--
that we were so excited for her, and we
were so excited to welcome her into this family.
Even though she was sort of brought into our lives
in a more nontraditional way, we wanted
to celebrate her in the same way that every baby--
or most babies are sort of celebrated and cheered on.
And from there, we started thinking
about my mom, who at 60 years old,
adopted three kids in successive years.
And she's now 73, with teens and preteens.
And there's no one that really celebrates
different kinds of family creation,
whether you have a chosen family.
So as an LGBTQ-plus ally, I see a lot of my friends
have chosen families.
And nobody really celebrates them.
And I want to be able to celebrate all of our families,
no matter how they're created.
And just letting everyone know that they are welcome
at this party called life.
And we wanted to start the little, little guys
off knowing that they're welcome and they're celebrated.
What a great book.
What a great, important book to read to kids.
And I have to go back to your mother, at 60.
Yeah.
Wait, so at 60 years old, she got how many babies?
So she adopted her first child at 60.
And then, the next year, another baby girl.
So she has two girls.
And then a couple of years later, she adopted her son
and my little brother, Amari.
And so now she's 73, divorced, single parent,
raising two teens and a preteen at 73, all on her own.
And there's not a lot of people that
are going (ENTHUSIASTICALLY) yeah, way to go.
And there's certainly not children's books
that celebrate--
we create families and all different kinds of ways.
And they're not all celebrated.
If it's not the traditional way, we just
don't have the words, or the language,
or even books that kind of help us
navigate being OK with celebrating
all kinds of different families.
That's fantastic.
This book should be mandatory reading for every children's
pre-school.
It really should.
I agree with Andy.
That should be mandatory reading for parents and schools.
Because what an important message to send.
We're going to take a break.
And when we come back we are going to play a game.
Yes.
We'll be back.