Shaunie Henderson Doesn’t Think She Was Ever “In Love” With Ex-Husband, Shaquille O’Neal

When it came time for Shaunie Henderson to pen her memoir, Undefeated: Changing The Rules And Winning On My Own Terms, her publishers criticized her first draft, saying the Basketball Wives creator wasn’t being “honest” enough. Fast forward to the final draft and the former Mrs. Shaquille O’Neal is telling it all. Part of that honesty included her getting real about her marriage to the retired NBA star.

During her recent appearance on The Tamron Hall Show, Hall read an excerpt from the memoir. “Looking back, I don’t know that I was ever really in love with the man, but 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,” it read. 

Henderson further explained, “No one writes this manual of how to do life. I wish! I own my space. I own my decisions. I own the fact that I was in complete denial and saw things right in front of me but just like – I was protecting myself, I was protecting my kids. I have this family, right? I didn’t want to be a failure and to me, losing my marriage was failing.” 

The now first lady confessed to being “in love with the partnership that I never got,” and shared that it wasn’t until she met her husband Pastor Keion Henderson that she was able to fully experience “partnership in a relationship.”

However, she did confirm that she and Shaq are on good terms. “I would not change any part of my story. Not one part of my story, no matter how depressed, how sad, how much of at the bottom I felt. I would not change one part of it because I feel like my reward is now,” said the reality TV star.

Henderson revealed that she began writing Undefeated over five years ago. It’s part of the “legacy” she wants to leave her children. “I turned around and realized, ‘I don’t have a career. I don’t have my own money coming in,’” she explained when speaking on her divorce from Shaq. She admitted to creating Basketball Wives out of “survival mode,” adding, “There has to be a place where we as women can have a platform, have a voice, find a purpose. It’s entertainment, but so many women now have a platform.”

Basketball Wives first aired in April 2010; its 11th season concluded this past January. You can buy the book, meantime, on Amazon.com.