Jurnee Smollett, Gabrielle Union And The Short Side Of 50/50

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One of many core motives behind celebrating Ladies’s Historical past Month is to acknowledge the numerous methods through which ladies have been in a position to progress in a society that’s notoriously put males first. One explicit battle of the sexes includes the dialog round going half in a relationship, primarily adapting to the idea of gender roles the place males are sole monetary suppliers and girls do their half by cooking, cleansing and elevating the offspring. In 2025 nonetheless, the height interval of fourth-wave feminism, that’s simply not the way it goes down on the common. In brief, “going half” on greater than only a child is proving to be the brand new norm.

Gabrielle Union and Jurnee Smollett, two profession ladies on the forefront of Black Hollywood for many years now, are each presently coping with the topic from two barely completely different views — one is pushing again on her personal self-imposed 50/50 rule, whereas the opposite is being challenged to shell out 50% of her retirement to an ex-husband that’s already obtained $1 million of their divorce settlement.

Are the women starting to rethink what it means to go 50/50?

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Learn up extra on Gabrielle’s state of affairs under, by way of Rickey Smiley Morning Present:

“In a current interview on the “Balanced Woman” podcast with Les Alfred, Union mirrored on how her mindset concerning relationships and cash has shifted over time. Two years in the past, she made headlines when she shared that she and her husband, NBA legend Dwyane Wade, break up their family bills equally. On the time, she noticed this as empowering, however now, she acknowledges that it was a coping mechanism tied to previous trauma.

‘I famously stated 50/50 or bust, and I meant that in each approach—financially, spiritually, emotionally,’ Union admitted. ‘However there are only a lot of days when I’ve 10%, and I would like him to be 90. There are days I don’t have something, and I would like him to be 100.’

When Union first revealed her method to funds, she was shocked by the sturdy response from social media. For her, it was about independence and guaranteeing she may at all times handle herself, particularly as she additionally financially helps members of the family exterior of her residence. However trying again, she now sees that her obsession with monetary equality stemmed from her previous trauma.”

As for Jurnee, ESSENCE reviews that ex-husband Josiah Bell is citing California’s group property legal guidelines that state marital property should sometimes be divided equally in a divorce. He needs 50% of her retirement funds from the time they had been married between 2010 and 2019, which might be along with the mixed $7,000 monthly in baby assist he’s already been receiving since 2019 for his or her now-eight-year-old son and alimony funds. A lot of the revenue he seeks can be derived from her roles as a collection common in initiatives like Friday Night time Lights, The Defenders, True Blood and Underground.

As anticipated, the remark sections on a lot of Bell’s current photographs by way of Instagram have been swarmed with vitriol starting from these merely asking “why take extra??” to the extra scathing pictures like “get a job,” calling him “brokey” and low-cost jabs at his profession as a musician.

Total, it actually comes right down to ladies having a selection relatively than what path is chosen. Some ladies are the only real breadwinners of their relationship — shoutout to Rihanna and Oprah!— others could go for a strong prenup that pretty splits issues down the center and a superb quantity are fortunately holding issues down as stay-at-home wives devoted to elevating a household with out the burden of monetary stress. There’s no dangerous choice per se; it’s with the ability to select that we really feel issues probably the most.