Shaquille and Shaunie O’Neal
Duration: 2002-2009
Without high-profile sports splits, we wouldn’t have guilty-pleasure entertainment like Basketball Wives, which was created by Shaquille O’Neal’s ex-wife Shaunie. She, of course, is now more famous four parlaying her split with the four-time NBA champion and TNT comentator into a reality show starring other former spouses and girlfriends of basketball players.
O’Neal, the seven-foot center who spent his NBA career between several teams, and his wife were married the day after Christmas in 2002, and their union produced four children. (Shaq also had a daughter from a previous relationship.) But as both would admit in later interviews, stardom and temptation became the same toxic combination it is for any celebrity marriage. They separated in 2007, but tried to patch things up. But before long, they both knew it was over. The two divorced in 2009 settling for an undisclosed, but reportedly substantial, amount.
