Shaquille O’Neal’s divorce from Shaunie Nelson was marred with drama, with the two having split twice before parting ways for good. When they separated, Shareef explained that he had to walk on eggshells around his parents. He didn’t want to upset Shaunie for talking to Shaq, but he didn’t want to alienate his dad, either. As a result, he had no choice but to keep some distance between them. “There was [sic] times when I didn’t know if I was supposed to talk to him because I didn’t want to make my mom mad or I didn’t want him to feel like we were abandoning him,” he shared in HBO’s “Shaq” docu-series.
It didn’t help that Shaq was a sports legend. Speaking with Essence, Shareef divulged that he was careful not to disclose to his friends the fact that Shaq was indeed his dad. “The thing about me that not a lot of people know is nobody knew who my dad was at none [sic] of my schools until I was about 15 or 16 years old,” he shared. “All the parent-teacher conferences, it was just my mom who came. It was a set plan.” It wasn’t until Shaq attended one of his basketball practices that everyone found out that he was a basketball scion. “There was a small game, 8 o’clock in the morning, my dad came and someone happened to film him. They posted it on YouTube and that was it after that.”
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