Shaunie Admits Receiving Over $50,000 From Shaquille O’Neal but Strongly Denies Alimony Claim

The end of Shaquille O’Neal‘s marriage to Shaunie was a very public affair. Between filing for divorce, reconciling, and filing again, Shaq’s NBA and business fortune was a major discussion in the media. After all, Michael Jordan’s divorce from Juanita Vanoy was one of the most expensive celebrity divorces in history. If Shaq would be a similar statistic was speculated. However, when Shaq and Shaunie finalized their divorce in 2011, he got away relatively cheap and with most of his empire intact. Through her memoir, Undefeated, Shaunie confirmed she wanted it that way. And when conflicting reports surfaced, she set the record straight.

In her book, Shaunie said that she told Shaq she didn’t want anything. However, during her appearance on the Dear Future Wifey show, she was informed about claims that she received over $50,000 from Shaq in their separation. She didn’t just dismiss the rumor, she even denied the figure. “First of all, I don’t know where that came from, I didn’t get alimony. I got child support,” Shaunie emphatically stated.

It was in reference to what she wrote in her memoir. “Despite my lawyers’ advice, I didn’t want anything from Shaquille. I just wanted out.” She admitted that a guilt-stricken Shaq wouldn’t be okay with not providing for the mother of his children.

“I kept telling him, ‘You don’t have to give me anything, just take care of the kids.’ Of course, he was legally bound to take financial responsibility for the kids, which he did, but outside of that, all I wanted was my car, which was in my name. The only other thing I wanted was peace of mind. I was hungry for it. I just wanted to live honestly and without lies or self-deception,” she wrote.

2011 reports indicated Shaq paid at least $10,000 per kid in child support. But she said on Dear Future Wifey, “It wasn’t $50,000, it was better than that.” Shaunie didn’t let the audience think Shaq left her high and dry.

She mentions in her book she moved from Miami to LA where her parents were during the divorce proceedings. She had saved up her ‘allowance’ from Shaq but that wouldn’t house her and her five kids in Los Angeles. They settled their divorce with child support terms. She reportedly got three of his houses worth a combined $33.4 million.

Shaunie slams the ‘lies’ about her marriage to Shaquille O’Neal

Shaunie couldn’t fathom where the $50,000 figure came from. Some reports claim that it was $10,000 each for their five kids, others say it was an additional $50,000 for herself. Sometimes she was slandered that she was taking Shaq’s money in spousal support despite her successful reality show. A couple of social media users speculated that she walked away from the ‘alimony’ when she remarried Keion Henderson in 2022. Shaunie called all of it a “bald-faced lie” and even challenged that she could pull out the receipts to challenge these false claims.

Throughout her book and press tour, she has maintained that she never took anything from Shaquille O’Neal that wasn’t for the kids. She put her savings into producing Basketball Wives which gave her a career she didn’t have while living the NBA life. In the same book, she says he was raised as a provider and she is comfortable relying on him for anything regarding their kids.

The speculation around their decade-old divorce never affects her co-parenting relationship with Shaq. Yet she’s not above busting those rumors about their co-existence.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaquille O’Neal’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.