Shaquille O’Neal has often talked about his change from being undesirable to girls growing up to suddenly being irresistible to women as an adult. This proved to be a tough transition for Shaq, especially during his relationship with Shaunie Henderson. The two met early in O’Neal’s tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers and married in December 2002. Though they had four children together, their relationship didn’t last.
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Shaq separated from Shaunie just five years after their marriage, reconciling for a bit only to finalize their divorce in 2011. Throughout their divorce process, widespread rumors claimed the Hall of Famer had been cheating. While it was originally speculation, the former MVP later revealed in his memoir, Shaq Uncut, that he had indeed been unfaithful.
After the split, Shaq was distanced from his children. The four-time champion missed the majority of his children’s teen years. He wasn’t able to experience many of his kids’ defining moments and still deals with the effects of his decisions to this day.
On a recent episode of The Big Podcast, Shaq and guest DJ Envy discussed the importance of being vulnerable and admitting your mistakes. O’Neal reminisced about the wrong turns he made during the prime of his career and the consequences he’s faced because of his infidelity.
“It hit me, because when things happened, my baby Shareef was 5’8″,” Shaq said, sharing how things were before the divorce went down. “Next time I see him, 6’11”. And I like to remember … I’m like, where did all this go? And that’s when it really hit me.”
It wasn’t until Shaq stood in his mansion alone that he realized there are some things money can’t replace. “I’m in Orlando. My house is 70,000 square feet, and I’m in one room, in the kitchen, and then I go to bed,” he continued. “My boys [are] like, ‘Yo, man, you gotta get out.’ I’m like, ‘I can’t, I f***ed up.’ I don’t like f***ing up, because I’m a creature of habit and I’m supposed to learn from mistakes.”
Shaq has reconciled with and grown closer to his children in recent years, but he still regrets not being a bigger part of their lives. Once he realized his mistakes and was comfortable acknowledging them, he did feel better about his past. But that hasn’t kept Diesel from thinking about what he missed.
“My kids are 27, 28. The only thing I remember is ‘daddy’ and ‘daddy’ … And like them now, driving cars and doing their own thing I’m like, d*mn, ‘Where did that time go?'” Shaq questioned. “And the time disappeared because I made it disappear.”
Shaq knows he wasn’t nearly as present of a father as he should’ve been during his children’s younger days. But he’s made every effort to redeem himself over the last half decade, building bonds with his kids that he never had with them in the past.
