Shaquille O’Neal’s Parties During Covid Lockdown Had Shaunie Worrying for Her Sons’ Lives

Shaquille O’Neal and Shaunie Henderson had been divorced and co-parenting for a decade by 2020. So they should have been comfortable enough to adapt to the circumstances that year presented. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, they had a lot to recalibrate. Their son, Shareef O’Neal, was on the mend after congenital heart surgery and transferred from UCLA to LSU. They had kids between college and school, while Myles and Taahirah were new to their respective careers. Shaunie revealed through her #1 Amazon Bestselling memoir, Undefeated, that they both established a system for their five kids during the national lockdown. But we all saw the social media entertainment O’Neal provided with half of his kids. And apparently, that made things tense with Shaunie.

“Like many of us, the pandemic gave me a whole new reason to worry,” Shaunie writes in her book. “When everything locked down in 2020, I ended up with the girls in Houston, where we had just moved, and the boys ended up with Shaquille in Orlando.” Shaq’s idea of shelter-in-place was a little different from the average population and what Shaunie had in mind.

Like most of us, Shaunie tried to give her daughters a break and find ease within the uncertainty. Shaq instead proved the fun didn’t have to stop even in lockdown.

The memoir further reveals, “That was a strange arrangement, not least because Shaquille and I had different attitudes about what lockdown meant. The girls and I had our bikes, and we would ride around our neighborhood, but it was just us. When I would FaceTime with the boys, I could see that the house was full of people. I had my ‘girl cave’ with my daughters, my sons had their man cave with their father—the gym and basketball court and all the rest—and that was fine. But I was not okay with a house full of strangers, any of whom could be carrying COVID.”

And like any concerned mom, Shaunie took it up with her co-parent. In no simple terms, she asked him, “You do understand we’re in the middle of a pandemic right now, right?” His defense was, “We’re locked down. Everybody that comes in is locked in.” It was vague and didn’t do anything about Shaunie’s fears for her sons.

She writes bluntly, “That wasn’t reassuring, but thank God, everybody stayed safe. Shareef didn’t get COVID until he went to LSU.” It’s evident that Shareef recovered too and he made the most of his dad’s lockdown parties as well.

Lockdown couldn’t curb Shaquille ‘DJ Diesel’ O’Neal’s enthusiasm

With the NBA season suspended, Shaq was not letting social distancing cramp his style. Once in a while, he’d share his lockdown activities on social media, including his head-thumping house (both genre and in the literal sense) parties deejaying from his kitchen island. His lockdown home festival attendees were his sons, Myles, Shareef, and Shaqir, and nephew Gregory Jordan. He dubbed it the “Oneal boys kitchen concert.” 

It appears to be Shaq’s home in Atlanta. Shaunie was new in her relationship with Keion Henderson then. So it doesn’t appear she moved with him from California to Houston at that point. She would’ve been with her daughters in LA, probably.

Shaq took every precaution and urged people to be safe during lockdown. He had a brief COVID-19 scare in 2021 and chose to cancel appearances for everyone’s safety. As much as Shaunie was worried about the O’Neal boys, it does appear that her ex-husband was safe.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaquille O’Neal’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.