Gabrielle Union wears polka dot bikini as she poses for Self

Gabrielle Union has been photographed by her 13-year-old stepdaughter for the cover of Self magazine. 

The teen’s first cover shoot captures Gabrielle soaking up the sunshine while striking an array of stylish and carefree poses in the family’s backyard. 

In one of the images, Gabrielle, 47, flaunts her bikini body while wearing a fun polka dot bikini and long cream duster.  

Gabrielle flashes a jubilant smile as she raises her hand in the air while leaning against a marble structure.  

On the cover image, Gabrielle oozes sophistication as she poses barefoot in a plunging salmon pink blazer with flared white trousers.  

The actress takes the plunge yet again in a loose-fitted coat, which is gently secured around the waist with a leather belt.

Gabrielle does not let her emotions show as she gazes towards the camera with her hands resting delicately upon her coat.   

The final two images see more of Gabrielle’s lively side, as the actress throws her head back in laughter while surrounded by bubbles, and poses by a small garden in a fitted black maxi dress in a separate snap. 

The photos mark the first time Zaya has shot a magazine cover, and Gabrielle admitted she was very curious to see just how her stepdaughter would capture her.  

‘I’m just interested to see myself through Zaya’s eyes,’ she told the magazine. ‘I think that’s really actually…really interesting. Because I trust her. And she has a story to tell.’ 

‘I love her as an artist,’ she continued. ‘I mean, obviously I love her period, but where her mind is going and where her creativity is going is just dope to see. I’m just really interested to see what she comes up with.’  

In a statement for the magazine, Zaya admitted shooting her stepmother felt like ‘bliss.’

‘The only emotion to describe the way I felt during the photo shoot is pure bliss,’ she said. ‘I finally felt like I was doing something that I loved. It was a great experience.’ 

Gabrielle and her husband Dwyane Wade revealed Zaya was transitioning earlier this year.

The decision to share the news at that particular time was done in part because of Dwyane’s documentary, D. Wade: Life Unexpected, which was released in February.

During production, Dwyane realized he had not been including a lot of recent footage of Zaya, and mostly content of her as a young child.  

‘And if my husband was going to do a documentary about his life and you’re only seeing dated footage of Zaya, what are you saying, really?’ Gabrielle said. 

‘He was uncomfortable with that and really wanted to show his family as we are. And part of that is talking about Zaya’s journey.’ 

Dwyane wanted to send a message of acceptance, as both he and Gabrielle were cognizant other families in similar situations may hide their children out of a sense of shame or misunderstanding.   

‘That you can openly and honestly and unapologetically love your kids and accept your kids, exactly as they are,’ Gabrielle said of his message. 

Gabrielle, who also shares one-year-old daughter Kaavia with her husband, also addressed how she had been raising black children.  

‘What I teach them is to always center joy, peace, grace, compassion, understanding, and to be a good neighbor and global citizen, but that you are worthy and deserving and validated by birth, by the fact that you exist.

‘And that is absolutely enough, and if it’s not enough for someone, that’s not someone that you need to be worried about. Because […] you can do all of these things and constantly be monitoring yourself and worrying about what you’re saying or doing, and the reality is that if someone has racist or bigoted or anti-Black sentiments, it’s actually not going to change if you have a three-piece suit on, or you have a Harvard sweatshirt on, or if you’re driving a nice car, or if you speak the Queen’s English. It’s not our job to be educating people who could easily google, because they are committed to being willfully ignorant. I free you of that.’

‘All I can ask of my kids is to be good people, but not to shape-shift constantly, out of a fear of scaring someone that’s committed to being afraid,’ Gabrielle added.

‘So I didn’t want to put the same thing on our kids as what was put on me. When you realize how many decades I wasted trying to be something else, and centering fear that is unfounded, and rooted in racism and anti-Blackness. 

‘So I’m not putting that on my kids. And having the talk is to now have really brutally honest conversations, you know, about what it is. And also to be really clear about [the fact that] real friends don’t need you to prove your goodness by sameness.’ 

Meanwhile, Gabrielle also addressed her time on America’s Got Talent, which has been surrounded in controversy.

The actress previously told Variety she was compelled to report Simon Cowell’s smoking on set and racist jokes cracked by guest judge Jay Leno – but when she spoke up, she was cut from the show.

Earlier this month Gabrielle filed a complaint against NBC Universal, Cowell and production companies FremantleMedia and SyCo, for harassment after she was fired by America’s Got Talent after serving just one season as a judge.

Without ever identifying the show, network, production company or Cowell by name, Gabrielle claimed she was viewed as a ‘problem’ the moment she reported Cowell’s smoking on set.

‘Day one, my boss—who owned the show, executive producer, and lead judge—is chain-smoking cigarettes inside,’ the star said. ‘Like, openly flouting the law. And no one’s doing anything.’

Gabrielle, who is allergic to cigarette smoke, was reluctant to speak up but did so anyways.

‘I’m sitting there like, I don’t want to be this girl. Day one? Like, day one on this dream job? Like…come on.’

‘And everyone’s like, ‘Aahh, yeah, you know, we can ask?’ the actress remembered. ‘And I’m like, Well, it’s, like, a law? So I don’t even think you really have to ask, right? It’s just, like, the law. So…’

‘The second I had to ask to, you know, not be poisoned at work, I became a problem.’

‘There’s no way I feel okay about allowing someone to openly flaunt breaking the law and exposing all of the dope crew and the production and the talent, and all these people, to carcinogenic toxic chemicals—the legit definition of a toxic work environment. Who am I if I can’t stand up in this? It’s legit. It’s not an opinion; this is the law. I should never have been put in this position, and there should have been measures put in place to deal with these kinds of things, and it should never have been put on me. But here we go. And I have to say something, and I have to stand up for all of us. But with that can come consequences.’

A spokesperson for Simon told Variety of the incident: ‘[W]hen he was directly informed of the smoking complaint during the first couple of days of the season, he immediately changed his behavior and the issue was never raised again.’