Earlier this year, “Basketball Wives” star Shaunie Henderson went through a few changes in her life.
The 47-year-old married Pastor Keion Henderson in May in a lavish ceremony in Anguilla. Shortly following her wedding, Shaunie would officially drop the last name O’Neal that she’d kept after her divorce from Shaquille O’Neal.
On Nov. 7, the couple made their first television appearance on “Sherri.” In the episode, Shaunie opened up about her first reaction when Keion proposed to her on Nov. 11, 2021. The mother of five revealed she was surprised because Keion was the first person to officially propose to her. She said, “I never got a proposal.”
When asked how she felt during that moment, Shaunie disclosed she was a bit confused because she thought the pair was attending an event for Keion’s friend.
“First of all I thought this was his friend’s birthday dinner the whole night. He started talking about love and I’m looking at him like ‘Why are you doing this? This is this man’s birthday.’ But then he came around the table and got on his knee and I was l justike my heart melted because again I have never been officially proposed to.”
Immediately after Shaunie’s opening up, Keion jumped in and claimed that on the day of the proposal, the “BBW” executive producer would ask him occasionally when they were getting married.
He said, “So what’s happening is we met, she had a tattoo on her wrist, 11:11. I have the same tattoo on my back. So she kept talking about ‘When are you gon’ ask me to marry you?’ She didn’t know I was waiting until Nov. 11th.”
Keion added, “So I waiting until Nov. 11, and that was at 11:11 on the 11th, so this entire day she had an attitude the whole day because I was sneaking around fixing stuff up … She was bothering me that day; didn’t know I was fixin’ to change her life.”
Following Shaunie’s confession of never being properly proposed to, one fan pointed out not having an understanding of what she meant by those claims if she was married to Shaquille O’Neal. That person wrote, “Wasn’t she married to Shaquille O’Neal?”
Shaunie and Shaquille were married from December 2002 until she filed for divorce for the first time in 2007, after the former professional basketball player cheated on her numerous times. The pair would briefly reconcile. In 2009, Shaunie filed for divorce a second time and requested sole custody of their four children. Shaunie and Shaquille’s divorce was ultimately finalized in 2011.
During an interview with sports journalist Taylor Rooks, Shaquille acknowledged that he messed up his marriage with Shaunie.
He said, “I live in a thirty-thousand-square-foot house by myself. You don’t think I know I messed up? My wife was fine as hell; I had it. My babies are beautiful — I’m in there by myself. I messed up.”
The 50-year-old added, “It’s the ones that don’t know when they mess up, is the ones that don’t ever make it. I messed up, and you live with it.”
