During an appearance on T.I.’s expediTIously with Tip “T.I.” Harris, NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal touched on his divorce from Shaunie Henderson and revealed that his children refused to talk to him after their separation.
O’Neal and Henderson tied the knot in 2002, and the former Los Angeles Lakers legend initially filed for divorce from her in September 2007. Though they ultimately reconciled later, Henderson filed an intent to divorce in November 2009. The former couple, who share four children, finalized their divorce in 2011.
“I learned that I know better than to be out here bullsh*tting,” O’Neal, 53, said about their divorce, per HOT 97. “Sometimes you just get caught up. But we know better.”
The four-time NBA champion also touched on the effects the divorce had on his children.
“In all of that, I’m just happy and blessed that they’ve forgiven me. Because me and my babies didn’t talk for a while,” O’Neal said. “I understood that, but now we’re starting to get closer. I’m teaching my boys to be better than me. Papa was a Rolling Stone. You don’t need to be like me.”
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O’Neal additionally expressed his gratitude to Henderson for “forgiving me and not killing me,” adding that he’ll tie the knot in three years. Henderson, on the other hand, has since remarried.
In a previous appearance on Heir Time with Reginae Carter, O’Neal’s son, Shareef, similarly reflected on their parents’ separation and how he and his siblings handled it, HOT 97 reported.
”The first few years it was pretty hard,” Shareef, 26, admitted. “We were all too young to kind of understand what’s going on. Mom and Dad aren’t going to be together. It wasn’t like a ‘choose a side’ thing.”
“My mom [was] like, ‘If you guys wanna go with your dad, go ahead.’ My dad’s like, ‘If y’all wanna go with your mom, go ahead,’” he added.
Despite their separation, Shareef commended his parents’ co-parenting.
“I think the thing that I respect about my parents both is how well they co-parent,” Shareef said. “They never come around, and it’s a problem. My mom is remarried now. She can bring her husband around and dad [can] dap him up and have a conversation. So, I respect them both for never putting the stress on us.”
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