Dwyane Wade Responds Hard To His Ex-Wife's Attempt To Stop Daughter Zaya's Name Change
The NBA player recently addressed the bold allegations made by Zaya’s mom, Siohvaughn Funches-Wade.
Don’t come for Dwyane Wade because he’s going to push right back. The basketball star is speaking out against his ex-wife, Siohvaughn Funches-Wade, who has filed a petition to deny Wade’s action to legally change the name and gender of their child to Zaya Wade, who identifies as female.
Funches-Wade petition to the court states that she believes Dwyane is pressuring their kid to be trans — and that living in the public eye has affected her feelings and identity. She also wants to her daughter to wait until she’s an adult to decide to change her name and status legally.
“Given [Wade’s] high-profile status as a professional athlete, our children's lives have been highly publicized. [Wade] has appeared on national television shows and in media reports regarding our child's name and gender change. I am concerned that our child is being commercialized at a young age and also of the uncontrollable consequences of media exposure i.e. cyber bullying, statements and/or pictures taken out of context of our child, and unwanted spotlight focused on our child,” Siohvaughn expressed in the petition.
“I have concerns that [Wade] may be pressuring our child to move forward with the name and gender change in order to capitalize on the financial opportunities that he has received from companies," Siohvaughn continued, “and will receive based upon [Wade's] statements to me, on the basis of our child's name and/or gender change.”
Clearly, Siohvaughn doesn’t remember teenage rebellion; my mom had zero hold on me at age fifteen.
Wade posted a lengthy response on his Instagram yesterday completely denying all of the accusations made in the documents by Siohvaughn and setting the record straight.
“Since this must be the new way of parenting, I guess I have to address these allegations here, which is a damn shame,” He began his post. “While I’m on a life-changing trip in our motherland, Africa, I’ve received a social media post about me forcing our 15-year-old child to be someone she’s not and to do something against her will. These are serious and harmful allegations that have hurt our children.”
“While none of us are surprised by Siohvaughn’s attempt to fight Zaya’s identity and her unwavering attempt to drag my name through the mud, I’m very disappointed that she continuously finds ways of centering herself and HER needs, without regard to her children. This report came out while Zaya was in class. This is a kid who has maintained a 4.0 GPA in honors classes while navigating all this unsolicited and harmful attention and debates about her gender and sexuality,” he continued.
Wade shares Zaya Wade, 15, and son Zaire Wade, 20, with Siohvaughn, Xavier, 8, with ex Aja Metoyer, and Kaavia, 3, with his current wife, Gabrielle Union. He has sole custody of Zaya and Zaire.
He also made crystal clear that the decisions about the name and gender change are Zaya’s alone.
“No one in our house would ever force Zaya or any of our children to do anything against their will, much less force an identity on them,” he wrote. This isn't a game for my family and definitely not for Zaya. This is her life!"
He concluded the post by saying that his lawyer would be in contact.
Kudos to Dwyane for speaking his truth and supporting his child. We hope that Zaya’s family is able to find some sort of reconciliation and healing while they navigate this new normal.
