Shaquille O’Neal admits that he’s not emotionally vulnerable or affectionate with his partners.
The former NBA legend recently made his second appearance on “The Pivot Podcast” on June 3, where he explained why he never vents to his partner about his problems.
One of the three podcast hosts, Fred Taylor, asked Shaq how often someone checks on his well-being to which he replied, “I don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”
To explain, the former professional athlete told a story about doing a speech where someone asked him what he was most disappointed in.
Paraphrasing his response to the woman, he brought up his sister Ayesha Harrison Jex, who died from cancer in 2019, and his former teammate Kobe Bryant who was killed in a helicopter crash alongside his daughter Gianna Bryant just three months later. Shaq said he regrets not telling them both that he loved them before they passed away.
“The fact that I couldn’t tell my sister and my boy ‘I love you’ just one last time ‘I love you,’ two last times, 10 last times, that kind of haunts me,” O’Neal said.
Ryan Clark followed up O’Neal’s response by saying many people have regrets but may not act upon them.
Cutting Clark off, the 53-year-old responded, “You know, I’m still bad at it. I’m trying, but all I know is work. And when I say work, before my father passed away, he said, ‘You know it’s your show now.’”
Shaq lost the stepfather who raised him since he was a child with his mother in 2013. He took his father’s words to heart and understood he was now responsible for being “the man” of the family to take care of his mother, his siblings, and their children, in addition to his own kids.
He further explained why this was critical. “Running the show is important because if the show ain’t ran properly, you lose it,” he said.
When Clark asked Shaq who takes care of him, the former Los Angeles Lakers player swiftly stated, “Nobody, I take care of myself.”
“Like, I caught flak one time I was on this young lady’s podcast and she said, ‘Do you express your emotion to your woman?’ I said, ‘No. Why would I do that?’ Oh, and they tried to kill me,” Shaq said, referring to the backlash he received online.
“But I don’t, and the reason why is because as a man you are to protect, provide, and love,” he explained. “And women are emotionally caring. So if I’m telling her I have a bad day now it’s two people with bad days. I don’t tell my woman I’m having a bad day.”
The former professional athlete shared the same sentiment during his March interview on the “It’s Giving” podcast, where he said, “You have to run your operation on controlled emotions.”
Shaq said he takes care of whatever problems he has himself so it doesn’t backfire by telling his partner, “Because if you put stress on her, she gon‘ put it right back on you.”
The Culture Millennials reposted the clip of Shaq talking about this and fans left their own reactions.
“He’s literally why his marriage didn’t work,” said one person putting the blame on him, while another added, “Shaq needs therapy, the more he talks it’s sad to hear he’s still hurt from his marriage.”
A third said, “Shaq is right. some women don’t care about a man’s feelings I’m not worried about his personal life no way. His ex wife didn’t love him anyway and he makes [sure] his family is taken care of. A lot of y’all can’t say that.”
A fourth person bluntly stated, “Shaunie hurt him,” referring to his ex-wife.
Shaq and Shaunie Henderson got married in 2002 and had four children: their sons Shareef, 23, and Shaqir, 20, and their daughters Amirah, 21, and 17-year-old Me’arah. Shaq had his eldest daughter Taahirah O’Neal, 27, from his ex-girlfriend Arnetta Yardbourgh and he adopted Shaunie’s oldest son Myles, 26, from a previous relationship.
“If you can’t share with your woman how you really feel is she really your woman?” one critic asked. “Times are evolving. We shouldn’t go off the past, [the] way things have been throughout history. Believe it or not, sh-t changes.”
Their divorce was finalized in 2010 after years of O’Neal being unfaithful, which he has admitted to and took accountability for in his 2011 memoir, “Shaq Uncut: My Story,” during his first interview on “The Pivot” in 2022, as well as other interviews over the years.
Update: Video Footage & Audio
— Media On Blast 🟢 (@mediaonblast) April 19, 2022
Shaquill O’Neal shares that he was at fault for his divorce from Shaunie O’Neal. Shaq said “I wasn’t protecting her and wasn’t protecting the vows”#shaquilloneal #shaunieoneal pic.twitter.com/DJD1K4FUhn
Shaunie said it wasn’t until after they separated that she began reflecting on their marriage during an interview on “Tamron” last May 2024.
“Looking back, I don’t know that I was ever really in love with the man,” she wrote in her memoir, “Undefeated: Changing the Rules and Winning on My Own Terms.”
“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,” she continued.
Her ex-husband, replied at the time, “I understand … I wouldn’t have been in love with me either. Wishing you all the best. All love, Shaq.”
Shaq responds to his ex wife shaunie on ig after she wrote in her book
— Shannonnn sharpes Burner (PARODY Account) (@shannonsharpeee) May 8, 2024
“I don’t know if I was ever really in love with the man” pic.twitter.com/MgU532VdRi
Elsewhere on the “It’s Giving” podcast, Shaq told the host about Shaunie’s statement, “She was a 1000% correct. I failed her as a husband as a protector as a provider and you know when you do dumb s–t dumb things happen.”
Shaunie is now married to Pastor Keion Henderson as of May 2022.
O’Neal has mentioned this concept several times in other podcasts. He said something similar while speaking to sports journalist Taylor Rooks for a 2022 Bleacher Report interview.
“I don’t have time to feel emotions,” he said. “Because when you’re put in a certain position you have to make sure everybody else is OK.” He went on to list out all of the people he is responsible for, which includes the two mothers of his children, his own mother, his six children, and his one remaining brother and sister.
“Before I think about myself I have to think about them. And by the time I think about them everyday, then I got to go to work. It’s 2 am. So I don’t have time to have any emotions,” he said. “I live a good life. I ain’t got time to complain about nothing.”
