Gabrielle Union has struggled to find "balance" in her life

The movie star - who has Kaavia, six, with Dwyane Wade, and is also the stepmother to Zaire, 23, Dahveon, 21, Zaya, 17, and Xavier, 11 - told Marie Claire magazine's Motherhood Issue: "I felt much more conflicted about my lack of balance with Zaire and Dahveon because their needs were just different and they needed me to be physically present.

"But there's no balance. I can't work in Atlanta 12 to 16 hours a day and think that I can have balance when I'm flying in on the weekends. Now I rely heavily on our village and there is zero shame in that."

Gabrielle acknowledged that she needs help from a team of people to raise her children.

The actress - who has been married to Dwayne since 2014 - said: "Not only do we have their long-term nanny, we've had mannies, we have family members, we have aunties, we have tutors, teachers, therapists. It's all hands on deck.

"A lot of us have deep shame about that. But there is no balance. I had to give myself a ton of grace and be like, I can't do it. I'm not even going to attempt having some kind of balance when none exists."

Zaya came out as trans when she was 12 years old, and Gabrielle sees it as her job to "keep her safe and protected".

She said: "It's who my child was born to be, who her soul dictates she is.

"It's my job to keep her safe and protected and educated and loved; and I can love her up in such a way that she can find community that exists outside of us for the rest of her life."

Meanwhile, Dwayne previously acknowledged that fatherhood is "hard".

The former NBA star told E! News: "We all know that being a parent is hard.

"I mean, being a human in this world is hard. That's just starting as just that - that's not even putting black complexion to it."