Shaunie’s Need for Shaquille O’Neal’s Attention Drove Her to Using This Tactic Despite Admitting to Loveless Marriage

A singular line from Shaunie’s memoir caused quite the uproar when it released in May. Since then, Shaquille O’Neal responded, their sons responded, fans were sympathizing with O’Neal, Shaunie defended her book by emphasizing on context, and her book has climbed to the top of the Amazon Bestseller list. The focus of her memoir was her saying that she was not in love with Shaq. They divorced in 2011, she moved on, remarried Keion Henderson in 2022, and refers to him as the love of her life in her book. Yet when people found it hard to move past her supposed lack of feelings for Shaq, they question why she stayed. That answer came in the immediate lines.

What pulled eyeballs to her book was the line, “Looking back, I don’t know that I was ever really in love with the man.” Shaunie had two kids with Shaq before they married in 2002, had two more kids together, separated, reconciled, and finalized their divorce. So fans questioned why she stayed in a loveless relationship with him for seven years of marriage and a decade total of a relationship. It the subsequent lines, she admits, “I was in love with the idea of being married to the man I had a family with. I was in love with the idea of building a life together.”

She admits that Shaq was a good provider and she loved spending time with him. What facilitated more time together was accompanying him on road games. “I truly did enjoy spending time with him. Road trips gave me a chance to be with my husband and experience the NBA life for a little while. I also went on road trips to get Shaquille’s full attention.”

In the same book, Shaunie admits their kids didn’t see enough of Shaq while he was away on games. Shaunie was the full-time parent, sometimes even when Shaq was around. But going on trips with him ensured it was just two of them. “At home there were so many distractions, but on the road it was just the two of us. I really did enjoy that.”

This also gave her a break from the kids. Her mother, a Los Angeles resident, would look after them. She spent time with the other players’ wives who used to shun her before she officially married Shaq. And these ladies related with her the most about the hectic schedules during an NBA season. “We understood each other’s schedules and lives, so it worked out perfectly,” she said about the other ladies. But there was a time Shaq hampered even that.

Shaquille O’Neal kept Shaunie out of road trips

Shaunie’s feelings, or lack thereof, stemmed from Shaq’s infidelity. She admitted she only stayed by focusing on her kids and distracting herself with the NBA Life. During the drama surrounding her book’s release in May, Shaq spoke about family dynamics and the team which led hin to enforce a rule that kept Shaunie and the other WAGs out of road trips.

“When I first got to Miami, wives could travel on a plane, m***r f**er, they could not, other than that, I’m the shit done with, no wives, no kids on a plane, ever, unless you make it to the finals and then they come and you gave us three, four, five, or six, all the wives hate me, but that’s okay, you’re not traveling,” he recalled.

Shaunie’s reasons for falling out of love with Shaq were different. But her sentiments were shared by the Miami Heat WAGs too for being left out of the road trips. Not that Shaq cared.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.