Dwyane Wade emotionally opened up on the struggles of growing up with his mother in jail as she battled substance abuse as he had to be raised by his father, despite the pair splitting up when he was just months old.
JoLinda initially obtained custody after the separation and moved to the South Side of Chicago, before his older sister tricked him to moving with his dad where the aspiring hooper was then limited to visits when she was in jail.
That was until his father moved them to Robbins in Illinois, where he then did not see his mother for two years as he began to develop his basketball career whilst also showing a talent for football too, later praising his sister for her role in his life.
Yet despite being 42 and an accomplished three-time NBA champion, Finals MVP and 13-time All-Star along with being an Olympic gold medallist with a net worth thought to be in the region of $170m, the childhood trauma still takes a toll as he tearfully recalled his youth.
“Vulnerability,” Dwyane said via Instagram. “Visit my mom in prison. Think about being a kid who has to look at his mom on the other side of the plexiglass and talk to her through the phone.
“That was the last time I went to visit my mother in jail. I couldn’t do it, I asked my father to never take me back again.
“But, me and mamma always kept in touch. We wrote letters, we still have them till this day. We sent letters back and forth. I’m just a kid, I wanna make my mom proud.
“So a lot of my journey was that I just want to be that kid to make his mom proud, to make his dad proud, to make his family proud.”
JoLinda heartbroken at her child’s confusion
And from the other side of the glass, it wasn’t any easier for his mother too as she opened up on the struggle of seeing her child confused as to why he could only visit her in the jail environment.
“I saw the look on his face,” JoLinda recalled to CNN in 2022. “Like, ‘Why is my momma behind there? What’s going on?’
“He didn’t know what was going on. And I remember saying, ‘Momma loves you.’ I said, ‘Who’s your favorite girl?’ He said, ‘You are, momma.'”
