Shaquille O’Neal is one of the biggest personalities in and around the NBA. The 7ft 1″ big man played in the NBA for 19 seasons, winning four NBA championships during that time. He was enshrined in the Hall of Fame and would go down as one of the most dominant players in the game.
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Over the years, Shaq has found success in various aspects of life. From raising wonderful children to building a net worth of over $400 Million, O’Neal has done it all. However, the one glowing red area has been his love life.
Shaq married Shaunie in 2002, and had four wonderful children with her. However, the pair split up in 2007 and got divorced in 2009. It was the big man’s fault for cheating on his wife, and he admits that it was one of the biggest mistakes he’s made. Despite not being together anymore, the two have kept things amicable to co-parent their children.
Shaquille O’Neal once revealed what line he would never cross
Shaq, along with several other things that he does, also runs a podcast on TNT. ‘The Big Podcast’ airs weekly where O’Neal sits with Spice Adams and Nischelle Turner, and they talk about several topics.
Back in January 2022, on one of the episodes, ‘The Big Wig’, Shaq and the crew were talking about people posting their marital problems on the internet. At that point, they were talking about Kanye West taking it to Instagram to talk and highlight things going on between him and Kim Kardashian.
Big Diesel spoke about the same and said,
“It’s not about having issues. Even if we’re fighting, I’m not going to embarrass her amongst the world. Even if we’re arguing, no. Hell, no!”
O’Neal was talking about Shaunie there, and how the two keep whatever issues they have away from the public eye. It’s good for their own sake as well as the sake of the children.
Shaq once paid Shaunie $300,000 to not work while they were married
Shaq once talked about how he wanted to keep his loved ones safe, and in order to do so, was also okay with giving them money to stay home. Narrating an incident, O’Neal once said,
“I know now, it is a mistake. I’m so big on my people. If I can protect you by keeping you in a house, stay in (the) house. What (are) you working for how much (do) you make in a year? 100,000? Here’s 300,000.”
While Shaq may think he was trying to be the big savior here, it just sounds ignorant. There is no issue in giving money, but that way, he stopped Shaunie from exploring the world and trying and becoming her own woman.
That might have been one of the reasons behind the divorce as well.
