If it hasn’t been made clear from Basketball Wives, Shaq’s own memoirs and interviews, and Shaunie’s recent account, the NBA legend was far from the perfect husband. By his own admission, Shaquille O’Neal repeatedly cheated on his former wife throughout their relationship, taking responsibility for their divorce. The point of her inspirational autobiography Undefeated was to help people who’ve been in her place and get through it. Shaunie wrote about how she felt dealing with all the signs of Shaq’s betrayal. But her husband, Keion Henderson never expressed his thoughts about it.

When they brought back their podcast, The GrOOwZone, this week, Shaunie asked Keion about showing grace in a relationship. She asked about the definition of the same while putting forward some conditions, “When you are a serial cheater, when you are a verbal abuser, if you have a problem with partnership and just including me… There’s levels to grace in a relationship.”

Shaunie didn’t get to complete her question, but Keion understood what she was asking about. The pastor paraphrases the verse from Ephesians in the Bible to answer her question of how a victim of infidelity shows grace. He said, “Every man is given a measure of grace.”

Now Shaunie doesn’t name names, she keeps it hypothetical and presents more than an infidelity scenario. But anyone who’s followed her life can’t discount that this question is at least a little from her experience. Henderson also knows that Shaunie has dealt with more instances of infidelity than she could count. Not only did she detail several instances related to Shaq in her book, but she also narrated watching her parents fight due to her father’s affair.

Hence Keion says, “There are levels to it [grace],” which Shaunie agrees that a person might have multiple second chances. But here’s where Shaunie’s husband draws the line at those chances.

“If I haven’t shown any signs of development in that area, or I take you for granted… and now I got to show you that grace is for people who tried to grow. Grace ain’t for somebody who just looking for a free get out of jail pass every time.”

Agreeing, Shaunie said, “That’s really good.” And maybe she needed someone to tell her this.

Shaq and Shaunie, the picture of grace

Shaunie’s mother stayed with her father till his death but their marriage had grown bitter because of her father’s actions. When Shaunie was in a similar position, she ignored several instances of Shaq’s affairs by distracting herself with the NBA high life. She initially filed for divorce when she couldn’t take it anymore. But then, she tried to reconcile with Shaq, before eventually filing for divorce again.

Shaq has shown some degree of growth that Keion talks about. He’s admitted his faults and has been apologetic to Shaunie. That’s probably why the exes have shown more grace as co-parents than when they were married.

Now, O’Neal and Henderson also have mutual respect. Shaq considers Shaunie’s husband a good man and Keion admires the millionaire for his philanthropy. It is visible in how they’re involved in their six kids’ lives without conflict.

There was a lot of noise regarding Shaunie’s honest feelings about her ex in her book too. Nevertheless, O’Neal was supportive of her and didn’t show any bitterness. Still, his concerning Instagram post indicates a lot of remorse for how he treated her. But despite their past, Shaunie and Shaq have managed to handle their current relationship with a lot of grace.