Shaq’s ex-wife Shaunie Henderson has a new book out to promote titled “Undefeated: Changing the Rules and Winning on My Own Terms,” and she seems to be coming off a little Jada Pinkett Smith-ish when it comes to talking about her history, according to some social media commentators.
Among the many revelations the former Mrs. O’Neal covers in her book, released May 7, Shaunie talks about Shaq’s habit of “going missing” while she was keeping house and home, and she also questions whether she was “ever really in love with the man” at all.
“I was in love with the idea of being married to the man I had a family with,” she writes in an excerpt, Page Six reports.
And it’s that last part that got everyone on social media wondering why she stayed with Shaq so long AND kept his name—marrying in 2002 and divorcing in 2011.
“She was in love with the money. Stop playing,” wrote one social media commentator on X under a post by the Tamron Hall Show about the interview.
While another commentator said, “Like all the women who chose a man for his money.”
The comments about money go on and on. But Shaq has already admitted that it was HE who messed things up with his “perfect” Shaunie. So everyone can just calm down.
In another show of class, Shaq took to social media to respond to the excerpt with the utmost respect for her, writing: “I understand.” He added, “I wouldn’t have been in love with me either. Wishing you all the best. All love, Shaq.”
During an appearance on the “Tamron Hall Show”—alongside her new husband, Pastor Keion Henderson—Shaunie didn’t shy away from the topic of money. She talked about wanting to leave a legacy for her children yet realizing she was completely dependent upon Shaq.
“I turned around and realize I don’t have a career. I don’t have any money coming in,” she said, explaining that creating VH1's “Basketball Wives” series was “out of survival mode.”
And so while Henderson might have been married to an NBA legend, she has become a legend in her own right in the reality TV business, and that’s something we can’t help but to applaud.