Shareef O'Neal and his siblings have come to terms with the divorce of their parents, Shaquille O'Neal and Shaunie Henderson.
In a chat with Heir Time, hosted by Reginae Carter, the daughter of Lil Wayne and Toya Johnson-Rushing, the professional basketball player reflected on his parents' 2011 divorce.
O'Neal and Henderson were married for nine years and share four children. The ex-spouses also had two respective children from previous relationships, with O'Neal adopting Henderson's oldest son, Myles.
"The first few years it was pretty hard," Shareef admitted (around the 5:30-minute mark of the video below). "We were all too young to kind of understand what's going on. Mom and dad aren't going to be together. It wasn't like a 'choose a side' thing."
He continued: "My mom [was] like, 'If you guys wanna go with your dad, go ahead.' My dad's like, 'If y'all wanna go with your mom, go ahead.'" The athlete added that his father was playing for the Boston Celtics at the time of the divorce, so he and his siblings remained in Los Angeles with Henderson.
"I think the thing that I respect out of my parents both is how well they co-parent," Shareef added. "They never come around and it's a problem. My mom is remarried now. She can bring her husband around and dad [can] dap him up and have a conversation. So, I respect them both for never putting the stress on us."
He concluded by saying his parents kept their issues "between them two" and "kept the family dynamic very strong."
While Shaq has not remarried, in 2022, Henderson married pastor Keion Henderson. In her 2024 memoir, the Basketball Wives creator reflected on her marriage to O'Neal, writing that she was more "in love idea of being married to the man" that she had children with than the retired NBA star.
