Dwayne Wade is still in Gabrielle UnionThe corner of – and it’s the same for her. In a new interview, the three-time NBA champion bragged about his wife and shared the one thing she does that can “turn him on.”
Speaking to PEOPLE at the Fragrance Foundation Awards in New York in early June, Wade praised his wife, Union, and talked about the little things she does that usually excite him. “I love that she mixes different perfumes and different lotions,” he said.
According to Wade, Union “knows” what he likes, and she usually leans towards it. “She knows what I like to smell. She knows the scents that turn me on a little bit,” he said.
Wade, who married the “Bring It On” actress in 2014, said he loved it when his wife showed up and had that special smell about her.
“I like when I smell it, I know it’s going to be a good night for us. Like if we go out to dinner, we’re going to have a good night, and she has that scent, she knows I like it, and I can’t keep my hands off her,” Wade said.
Dwayne Wade wants more men to embrace fragrance, says it’s for ‘stylish’ people
Wade’s comments on Union’s fragrance come during his tenure as global ambassador and face of Intuition, a men’s fragrance line from Aramis.
Wade takes his role seriously and said his goal is to help men feel more confident wearing the product. He also explained who the perfume is aimed at.
“You want that person to be stylish, you want them to be confident,” he said. “You want that person to be someone who can move throughout the day and understands that scent follows them.”
In his ambassadorial role, Wade said he wanted to encourage more men to use perfume to avoid smelling “musty”. He added: “It actually smells really, really good and it’s really, really fresh.”
Perfume has always been part of Dwayne Wade’s routine
This isn’t the first time Wade has spoken about the importance of scent. In a 2025 interview with W Magazine, the father of five said his journey into perfumes and scents felt natural to him.
“As a young boy, you’re very impressionable. And I was impressed by how my father and my uncles grew up,” he said, adding that he wore his father’s cologne as a child.
As a grown man, Wade said he knows what types of perfumes he likes to wear and what is most important to him when choosing one.
“I need my perfume to move with me throughout the day. When you put certain perfumes on, it’s just there in your nose, and that’s all you smell – you can’t smell anything else. I don’t like that. I normally choose milder perfumes, some that smell fresh or clean. You can reapply them and not smell like you work in a perfume store,” he explained.
Wade talks ‘self-care’ and how his mindset has changed over the years
As a fragrance connoisseur, Wade said surrounding himself with powerful scents, such as lavender, is essential to one’s well-being and part of his “self-care” routine.
He went on to say that he usually sprays his bed and pillows with perfume when he gets a massage, adding that it puts him in a relaxed state of mind.
And speaking about self-care, the athlete explained how her mindset on the subject has changed as she’s aged.
“As you grow up, you associate certain things with: this is what women do, and this is what men do. And as you get older, you become more confident in yourself, more confident in your manhood. Then you realize that [women] I had the cheat code the whole time, and we stumbled,” he said.
The One Thing Wade Does With His Wife To Stay Fresh
Now that Wade is discovering a different side of himself, the Miami Heat star said that in addition to massages, he gets facials with his wife.
“How I present myself is important to me. My wife and I have a facial cadence,” he said, adding that he has learned to take care of his body since retiring from the NBA.
“The humidity is not good for my skin, I often break out in rashes. And I was in Miami for 16 years, right in the middle of it all. If you look at my photos, you will see that I have bumps on my face, on my forehead, in my beard. Now I understand, as an adult, that it was not good for my skin,” he concluded.
