Despite Hiding Identity in Public School, Shaquille O’Neal’s Millionaire Son Admits to Leveraging His Father’s Fame

Everyone wants to know what’s it like growing up with famous parents. The O’Neal kids have lived through their dad’s NBA prime and then some. While Shaquille O’Neal is building a multi-faceted post-retirement empire, his kids are doing their own thing. His eldest son is now revealing what’s it liking growing up in the 7’1″ giant’s massive shadow. As it turns out, there’s no downside.

Shaq’s eldest son said the NBA legend’s fame didn’t affect their family, though he did try to downplay it. At the same time, there were some perks that he took advantage of.

Shaquille O’Neal’s fame benefits his kids

But not in the way everyone thinks. As much as Shaquille O’Neal’s six kids are fighting off those “nepo baby” allegations, they enjoyed some of the advantages that come with a famous dad. 26-year-old DJ Myles O’Neal dished on what those were during his appearance on Billion Dollar Barbie’s channel.

He prefaced that their household was all about winning and basketball. Fame didn’t get to their heads. It did get them into the coolest events though. “I used to be like I want to go to like Kids Choice Awards or something like that,” Myles said.

Now which one of us yesteryear ’00s babies didn’t want to go the slime-tastic that was Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Award? The giant teddy bear Shaq was voted best Male Athlete by kids in 1997, 2000, 2007, and 2011, along with getting nominated multiple other times. His kids were his entourage to the event most times.

“That was like let’s do that, like, let’s use this famousness for something. Let’s go to the Kids Choice Awards. Like, introduce me to like Raven Symone,” Myles gushed unapologetically.

WATCH THIS STORY | ‘Boss’ Shaquille O’Neal Silences Hate-Filled LaVar Ball’s Rant With 3-Word Stinging Reality Check

The Nickelodeon festivities weren’t the only thing he got to enjoy. “He’ll like take us to go see Suite Life of Zack and Cody film live, yeah… I’m like, ‘yeah, take me to go meet Zack and Cody right now.’ That was like my thing that I would use or like go to toy store or something.” 

What we wouldn’t give to watch the Sprouse Twins live or meet Raven in person. Myles took the good bits from Shaq’s superstar fame. But there were times he stayed away from it too.

When Myles pretended he’s not Shaq’s son

Myles is Shaunie Henderson’s son from a previous marriage and Shaq is his stepfather. While most of Shaq’s kids attended a private school, Myles opted to go to a public school to have a more normal life.

In fact, he wouldn’t introduce himself as Shaq’s son and enjoyed relative anonymity there. That became difficult when Instagram blew up the social media scene. Myles made his peace with it and now he’s doing his own thing.

Instead of basketball, he chose to follow Shaq in the music business. The father and son are DJs while Myles has a side career in fashion and reality TV.

READ MORE: “When Is an Ugly Women Not Bad”: Charles Barkley Flames ‘Ginny’ O’Neal on TNT’s Halloween Edition

Shaquille O’Neal keeps his kids on a strict perks diet too. And he’ll never fail to gush about how proud he’s of them. Are you jealous of the early 00′ dreams Myles got to enjoy though?