Upbringing

Although she was born in Texas, she was raised in Los Angeles, California. She would stay in Los Angeles for a long time and eventually met her future famous husband.

Married and Divorce From Shaq

She got married to Shaquille O’Neal in December of 2002 at a Beverly Hills hotel. During her married life, she had four children. The names of their children are Shareef Rashaun , Amirah Sanaa, Shaquir Rashaun and Me’arah Sanaa. She had already a son from a previous relationship called Myles and Shaquille had a daughter from a previous relationship with Arnetta Yardbourgh.

Shaunie and Shaquille separated in 2007 after 5 years of marriage in 2007 but the separation did not last long as they got back together. But after two more years of relationship problems, Shaunie asked for a divorce in 2009.

Shaunie divorced her husband because of his infidelity. Shaquille had a side girlfriend named Nikki Alexander and he said that at a time, he was a happy man but in the end he was a man with too many options and he chose to be with all the women that he could at the same time. He continues to say is not the best partner for commitment but he is learning now. 

Becoming Rich After Heartbreak

Shaunie and Shaq had a public and messy breakup. Shaunie had to hire a private investigator to get privates details about her husband’s secret behavior. They came to know about the sexting and the mistress of Shaq named Vanessa Lopez. Vanessa ended up suing the private investigator because she felt she was being harassed for having an affair with Shaq.

There were rumors that Shaunie was also involved with another man outside of their marriage. She had gotten fed up with Shaq and wanted to get revenge by also cheating. The two had a prenuptial agreement and after the divorce, the attorney of Shaq had to send a letter where he prevented Shaunie from discussing their marriage on any TV shows like the reality TV show Basketball Wives.

Some people in the basketball community lost respect for Shaunie because she stayed with Shaq for so long when he was cheating on her. She allowed him to humiliate her by bringing in so many other women into his life and still being married to her. People speculated that Shaunie allowed it so that she would have a reason for divorce. She no longer loved Shaq but she knew that she could win half of his assets if she had legal grounds for divorce. She needed evidence and proof that he was cheating in order to win the court case. When his first affairs did not provide enough evidence, she hired a private investigator to catch Shaq in the act. Some women support her because they feel Shaq deserved to lose half of his assets for what he did to Shaunie.