The failed marriage with Shaunie Henderson is one of the biggest regrets in Shaquille O’Neal’s life. The Lakers legend has acknowledged in the past that his marriage fell apart due to his struggles with infidelity. “I was a serial cheater,” O’Neal revealed on The Big Podcast With Shaq in 2022. “… I did it. I was the best at it. I’m not proud of it. I lost my family doing it. I lost valuable, important years with my children doing it.”
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Shaunie’s 2022 book also details how things spiralled in the O’Neal household.
In her memoir, Undefeated, Henderson narrated the moment when she came to know Shaq was living with another woman in Cleveland. By the time Shaq’s Cleveland stint started, the marriage was already hanging by a thread. The incident in 2009 turned out to be the final nail in the coffin.
Shaunie filed for divorce the same year.
After a one-year stint with the Phoenix Suns (2008-2009), Shaq was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Unlike during the time he moved to Miami or Phoenix, O’Neal neither asked nor took any initiative to bring his wife and kids to move to the city with him.
This was strange coming from the father of six. Shaunie knew something was amiss, and the shock came soon enough.
“I took the kids to Cleveland to attend the opening game of the Cavaliers’ season on October 27, 2009. I arrived at the house Shaquille had rented and was greeted by the housekeeper… who led me and the kids to the guest rooms. She kept saying, ‘The missus will be back soon,’ and immediately I knew what was going on,” Shaunie wrote.
“This very kind housekeeper had met some other woman and been told that she was the lady of the house,” she added.
Being treated like a stranger in her husband’s house stunned and devastated Shaunie. Initially, she even tried to justify with herself that the housekeeper could have mistaken her for a nanny or a visiting relative.
She wrote, “I had come full circle; now I was Mary Poppins!”
After the incident, Henderson filed for a divorce from the four-time NBA Champion. It took them two years to settle the proceedings.
And, after almost 11 years of seperation, she married to Keion Henderson. Shaq, on the other hand, is still single. Although he has been on dates with several women over the years, wedding bells seem to be not in the radar any time soon for the big fella.
