After raising five kids in a blended family, Shaunie is honest that she hasn’t figured out parenting yet. This week on The Groow Zone, Shaunie Henderson and her husband, Keion, talk about both their experiences blending their families. Keion Henderson has a tween daughter, Katelyn, from his previous marriage. However, both Shaunie and Shaquille O’Neal entered a relationship with a kid from their previous relationships, Myles and Taahirah respectively, and had four of their own. Despite their past blended family experience, Shaunie confessed she’s having trouble in the stepmother role for Keion’s daughter.

Pretty early into the show, Shaunie made a candid confession about her fears. “I have five children. I now have six with Katelyn. But if Katelyn isn’t bonding to me in a way that I would think she would, or would want her to, then my feelings get hurt. So then I get in that little sunken place…” 

One can understand why the bonus mom role is new territory for her. Taahirah O’Neal would be around three years old when Shaunie began dating Shaquille O’Neal in 1999. Taahirah’s mother, Arnetta Yardbourgh, primarily raised her with support from Shaq. While O’Neal adopted Myles and was his primary father figure, Shaunie didn’t have to play that role for Shaq’s eldest daughter.

Even when Keion began dating Shaunie around 2019, her five kids were much older and in no need of parenting. But Catelyn turned 12 in July and Shaunie wants to develop a good relationship with her. Not that she’s implying there’s any tension between herself and her stepdaughter.

When she says, “I’m trying to show you [Keion] like I’m really a good mom, or you know, a bonus mom or whatever it is that I’m doing to try to win the child over,” Shaunie is opening up about a fear she has. And if she feels that it’s not working, she doesn’t feel successful.

Shaquille O’Neal’s blended family experience

Ironically, Shaunie could’ve looked at her ex as an example too. After Shaq’s biological father abandoned them, Lucille O’Neal married Philip Harrison, with whom she had three more children. Shaq only has the highest regard for Harrison and they made a blended family work.

Lucille revealed on Raising Fame that the key to that was removing the ‘step’ and ‘half’ from relationships. “It worked well because we took that word ‘step’ out of our home. You’re not the stepfather, you’re the father and it worked,” Lucille revealed.

Shaunie, however, had different parenting experiences. She even admitted to Keion that when she divorced Shaq in 2011, she felt like she failed her kids. She dove deep into those emotions in her recent memoir, Undefeated, where she spoke about feeling guilt for breaking up her kids’ family.

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Keion, however, assured her that she’s doing plenty as a bonus parent. Besides, the O’Neal kids are pretty tight-knit irrespective of their blended family situation.