Dr. Lucille O’Neal, Shaquille O’Neal’s mother, has quite the story to tell with her latest memoir, While I Have Your Attention. It’s not the first time she’s shared her story with the world—her 2010 book, Walk Like You Have Somewhere to Go, marked her debut as an author. However, this time around, Lucille revealed that writing this book was much harder. She candidly opened up about confronting some “shameful” secrets from her past.

During an interview on Beyond the Red Carpet with Ny MaGee, Lucille shared that before putting pen to paper, she made sure to warn her children, including Shaq, about what was coming. “And I told my kids, I said, you’re going to read some things in this book that you didn’t know anything about. I warned them before it came to print,” she admitted.

But Shaq and his siblings didn’t waver. They offered their full support, telling her, “Mommy, it’s OK. You know, we try to be perfect… But we are not perfect.” Their reassurance helped Lucille find peace in her decision.

When asked if the memoir-writing process was therapeutic, she confirmed, “It’s safe to say that because it unloaded some of those feelings that I had of being shameful.”

Lucille was a single teen mom when she had Shaq. The LA Lakers star admits that his mother had to sacrifice quite a bit in raising him and eventually his 3 siblings. He once saw Lucille skip on a new dress for herself to ensure extra spending money for the kids.

So Shaq is appreciative of the efforts, buying her a house priced about a million during his early days in the NBA, taking ahead her recipes to find Big Chicken, and back her dream of completing her education.

In 1999, Lucille enrolled at Bethune-Cookman College, and her tuition? Fully covered by Shaq. She would also go on to earn her master’s from the University of Phoenix, a path her famous son would later follow. “My definition of being rich is being able to buy my mother whatever she wants,” Shaq had remarked. So he is proud of his mother, as are her other kids, as Lucille reveals. A few actions of regret from the past then, wouldn’t sway them.

Lucille O’Neal revisits her past

While promoting her memoir on the Atlanta News, Lucille admitted that being a teen mom was something she was ashamed about. “That was hard for me to share, because people think that when you’re pregnant early, you have no business,” she stated.

Her mother, Odessa would be her backbone in the challenging times, but Lucille never left it solely up to her. She took responsibility, strived to stand well financially, and would eventually make it a habit to put herself on the back burner for her kids. But years later, she would fight another battle. The truth she talks about on Beyond the Red Carpet with Ny MaGee. 

“Nobody wants to be called a drunk. So I amma tell you I was a drunk before I let you say I was a drunk. So that’s my truth and we gotta be truthful,” she says, speaking about answering the right questions when sharing one’s story. It was a difficult phase for Lucille, but she thought of Shaq and the impact it could bore as the attention poured in. She has been clean for well over 2 decades now and the O’Neal family seems to be as healthy as one could believe, with Shaq even bringing Lucille to the forefront of his Big Chicken promotions.