Shaunie Henderson gives an unfiltered perspective on her seven-year-long marriage with Shaquille O’Neal in her memoir, Undefeated. While her confession of never being in love with her then-husband is the most talked about issue, other facets of their relationship are also surfacing through this book. Most of Shaunie’s relationship with Shaq was influenced by her parents’ marriage; not repeating the same cycle was all she seemingly cared about.

In the book, Shaunie reflected on her parents’ marriage to eventually say, “That’s why I eventually forgave Shaquille for the things he did wrong in our marriage.” What helped her reach that point?

Her parents were together for over five decades till her father passed away in March 2022. But by no means was their marriage ideal. Shaunie realized at a young age that her father had been unfaithful to his mother. However, her mother not only stayed in the marriage, but she never forgave her father. Her mother held on to her anger against her husband and Shaunie witnessed “scary” fights at a young age. It shaped grown-up Shaunie’s belief, “I would never let my significant other turn me into an angry woman.”

Those fights were so ugly that Shaunie pleaded with her mother to leave her husband and she’d go with her. “But of course, she wouldn’t leave. It wasn’t even an option.” Her mom instead became an angry and unhappy woman who couldn’t let go. That was someone Shaunie didn’t want to be.

Shaunie very poignantly explains that forgiving someone doesn’t make you weak. “It’s a gift to yourself.” Like her father, Shaq had not been faithful to her. She had been aware of his infidelity for a long time but tried to focus on their family and kids. The NBA WAG Life could only distract her so much and with the end of his NBA career came the end of his marriage.

Shaunie gave herself a gift

They tried to work it out before eventually finalizing their divorce in 2011. Contrary to her mother, Shaunie not only left the marriage but also forgave Shaq for causing the breakdown of it. “That’s a gift I gave to myself.”

Shaunie does write that her mother loved her father even though she was angry about what he did. She clung on to the love as much as the rage. Shaunie contrasts her mother, explaining that she wasn’t in love with Shaq. That statement though caused another kind of storm on social media with O’Neal admitting he wouldn’t love himself either. Shaunie called out all the trolls coming after her for that line.

There’s more to her book that gives more insight into Shaq’s only marriage. And it won’t be the last thing that intrigues fans.