Apple Mail is hijacking my forwarded emails when using Gmail SMTP - how to stop it from happening?

Mail program 16.0, on Sequoia 15.5, 16" Mac Book Pro Apple chip M3 Max I have emails that come to my Mac Mail program via @iCloud.com email account. I also have in the same mail app a few Gmail imap accounts. Sometimes id like to forward an @iCloud.com email to a person using a gmail account - which im told by apple tech support im suppose to be able to do & have done previously with no issues - until lately. Not sure when the problem started. I'll select the @iCloud.com email to forward, click forward, change the " from account " to a gmail account, compose and send the email. The problem is that the emails are not sent using the selected gmail account , but are being sent by apple mail and is using my Apple ID - which I do not want to be used or made public. Id like the email to be forwarded using the selected gmail account. How can I figure out what causing this unexpected behavior & how can I make the forwarded emails be sent from the selected gmail account and not my Apple ID account? To add to the frustration & curiosity, when I try the above send procedure using apple mail & forwarding with gmail , it works as expected on all my iOS devices - iPhone & iPad. Ive checked the gmail accounts on my MacBook Pro to make sure the smtp's are correct and they all show gmail credentials. Ive also removed & re-added the gmail accounts with no change in behavior. I dont know what else to try / check. Help appreciated. Attached is a screen shot of the drop down menu I use to select gmail account when composing the forwarding email. Thank you.