“I Didn’t Want to Make My Mom Mad”: Shareef O’Neal Admits Pain of “Abandoning” His Own Father Shaquille O’Neal

The Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal and his ex-wife Shaunie O’Neal were among the most popular couples in the NBA world during the early 2000s. The couple made it to the news headlines several times for their wild parties. Moreover, they raised six children, including kids from their previous relationships. However, the happy marriage didn’t last long, as the couple parted ways in 2011. Following the separation, Shaq had a tough time coping with it, and his eldest son Shareef O’Neal recently opened up about the situation dealing with his dad. 

The Big Aristotle opened up about coping with his divorce several times through his podcast show The Big Podcast. During one of the episodes, he admitted that loneliness after the separation pushed him into a deep dark tunnel of depression. Even though the big man refused to use the word depression, he said, “I’m not gonna use the D-word because I know a lot of people are suffering from that…But I was all the way down.”

Shareef opened up about abandoning Shaquille O’Neal

Shareef O’Neal discussed his uncomfortable situation after his parent’s divorce in the recent docu-series Shaq. He said, “There was times when i didn’t know if I was supposed to talk to him because I didn’t want to make my mom mad or I didn’t want him to feel like we were abandoning him.”

However, things have drastically changed in several years as Shaunie and Shaq maintained a healthy relationship as friends to co-parent their kids. Moreover, Shaq stood by his son Shareef during his life-altering heart surgery.

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Notably, Shaunie married a famous pastor, Keion Henderson, in a private wedding with 200 guests in 2022. 

Moreover, Shaq has developed a solid fatherly bond with his kids as he often uploads pictures with them on Instagram.

Shaq’s promise to Shareef before the life-deciding surgery

Shareef underwent open-heart surgery after diagnosing irregularities in his heart function in 2018. Considering the severity of the operation, Shaq’s family encountered nervous moments at the hospital. However, Shaq made a bizarre promise to his son before the surgery. He said, “bro when you wake up, I’m gonna be the first motherfu**** you see trust me.” He added, “If you don’t wake up, I’m coming right behind you because I am killing everybody. I’m gonna be one of the biggest serial killers, and they’re gonna kill me. And we’re gonna be in heaven or hell together.” However, Shareef recovered from the surgery and is currently playing for NBA G League.

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What do you make of Shareef’s statement about abandoning his dad? Let us know in the comments below.