Shaquille O'Neal and wife story
There is probably not a single person in the world who has never heard of Shaq. This giant of a man simply exudes charisma, which is why it is not surprising how many women have been around him over the years. Today, let’s talk about Shaquille O'Neal and wife, as she is the woman that has been in his life for longest.
Shaquille O'Neal wife
As you most likely know who Shaquille O'Neal is, we will not bore you with his entire biography, so let’s jump right into his personal life, particularly his (unfortunately) failed marriage. For several years (from around 1998), he had been dating woman that would one day become his wife. It was none other than Shaunie O’Neal, who is now known as the producer of Basketball Wives on VH1. But back then, she was just a film marketer.
On December 26, 2002, the stunning couple tied the knot in a secret wedding ceremony in the Beverly Hills Hotel. It is interesting to note that both Shaq and his wife came into this relationship with children of their own. Shaquille had a daughter named Taahirah, while Shaunie had a son named Miles.
Even before they got married, the couple had already had two children together. In 2000, they had their first child Shareef, and a year later, their daughter Amirah was born. Over the next few years, their family had grown bigger by another two children. In 2003, the world saw the birth of Shaqir, and their youngest child, Me’rah, was born in 2006.
While it might have looked like everything was great, there was quite a lot of trouble in their paradise. The year 2007 saw the first big crack in the marriage of Shaq and Shaunie. That year, Shaquille filed for divorce on the grounds that his wife had been secretive about her funds and assets.
It seemed rather weird, as back then, Shaq made $20 million a year just from his basketball career, and even more, if you count his many endorsement deals. Why he was so upset over his wife allegedly hiding money from him? We will never know.
Despite the fact that the marriage was apparently ‘irretrievably broken’, the couple managed to put their disagreements aside, and the divorce papers were put away. But not for long.
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Not two years later, things fell apart once more, this time on the grounds of infidelity. It seemed like both Shaq and Shaunie were cheating on each other. Shaunie even hired a private investigator to unearth the details of her husband’s infidelities.
The couple had a prenup, so the divorce process was not all that complicated. Nevertheless, it took the couple whole two years to finalise it, and the whole thing was rather loud and messy. The children ended up with their mother, and Shaq was required to pay a significant amount of money in child support. What is interesting, though, is that Shaquille prohibited his wife to talk about their relationship on her show Basketball Wives.
A few years later, Shaquille opened up on the whole affair in his memoir, where he talked about how he had ‘too many options’ and how he was not the best partner to his wife. From his book, it was obvious that he was blaming himself for the breakup, so it was nice to see that he owned his mistakes.
Who are they with today?
After the divorce, both parties went their separate ways. They still keep in touch and even meet up from time to time to hang out with their children like a family, but neither one of them has ever mentioned anything about getting back together.
As a matter of fact, it seems like Shaq might get married again soon. After dating several women over the years, including Karrine Steffans, Dominica Westling, Laura Govan and, most famously, Nicole Alexander, the big man has found his happiness with Laticia Rolle. Last October, she posted a picture to her Instagram, where she was wearing a large ring on her ring finger, but there have been no official news of engagement to this day.
Shaunie has tried dating as well, but it seems like she is better off alone. In 2016, she broke up with her boyfriend of six years Marlon Yates. These days, Shaunie O’Neal enjoys being a single mom, living with all of her kids and taking care of them.
If you want to see more of Shaq, his wife or his girlfriend, you can follow him on Instagram @shaq, his wife @shaunieoneal5 and his girlfriend @laticiaxoxo.
Even though they have not been together for a long time, many will still remember Shaq and Shaunie as a big power couple that made everyone fall in love with them. We hope that both of them are happy now, whoever they choose to spend their lives with.
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Source: Legit.ng
