Shaquille O’Neal and Shaunie Henderson got married in 2002 and were together for nine years before they parted ways. The Lakers icon had filed for divorce in 2007 but withdrew the petition. However, two years later, she filed for a legal separation and they officially split in 2011. The reason was reportedly his unfaithfulness, which Henderson wrote about in her memoir Undefeated. She also revealed how she inadvertently learned that he was cheating.
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In February 2005, O’Neal was in Denver to play for the Western Conference in the All-Star game. Henderson was also in town with her friends. The then-Heat superstar was unaware that his wife knew the hotel where the players usually stayed. When she arrived at the check-in desk, the clerk accidentally told her that the center had been there with another woman. Henderson wrote,
“I attended the All-Star Weekend with some of my girlfriends… I arrived at the hotel where the team usually stayed when they were in town. The check-in clerk said, ‘Oh, Ms. O’Neal, you left your scarf and gloves here last time. I’ll get them for you.’ Before I could say anything, he brought out a scarf and gloves that were not mine. I had never been to this hotel before.”
The unsuspecting hotel clerk continued to assume that Henderson was the same woman that O’Neal usually came with and she played along to gather more information about the mistress. She wrote,
“He said something like, ‘You grew your hair out.’ I don’t remember what my hair was like back then, but it was obviously the opposite of whatever he had seen the last time he thought I had been there. Then he said, “Can I get you your tea?” I don’t drink tea. Whoever this front-desk clerk thought I was, she had clearly been to the hotel multiple times, posing as ‘Ms. O’Neal.’ because she had a standard order. I was now seething with anger.”
Henderson confronted O’Neal about it, and the couple unsurprisingly had a massive fight. Months later, she learned that the woman in Denver wasn’t his only mistress. She once accidentally left the house with his phone, went through it, and found incriminating evidence that devastated her.
But despite his infidelity, Henderson gave her husband another chance after he convinced her that he wouldn’t cheat again. However, neither his promise nor their marriage lasted for too long.
In his 2011 memoir Shaq Uncut, the Hall of Famer admitted that he repeatedly cheated on Henderson and regrets it. He wrote,
“I was a guy with too many options. Choosing to be with some of those women, well, that’s on me. In my mind, I never did it disrespectfully, but obviously I shouldn’t have done it all.”
Nine years after their divorce, she met pastor and internet personality Keion Henderson through a mutual friend. In 2022, the couple got married. O’Neal and his ex-wife have moved on with their lives but remain on relatively good terms as they continue to raise their six children.
