Miami — Miami Heat center Shaquille O'Neal wants to divorce Shaunie, his wife of nearly five years. "The marriage between the parties is irretrievably broken," says his petition, filed Tuesday by attorney Ira Elegant.
The O'Neals have four children together — Shareef, 7, Amirah, 5, Shaqir, 4, and Me'Arah, 1. Shaq has a daughter, Taahirah, and Shaunie has a son, Myles, from previous relationships.
The family lives on Miami Beach's exclusive Star Island. They bought an $18.8 million estate in the summer of '04, at the time of his trade to the Heat. It is for sale — No. 32 is asking $32 million.
Shaq, 35, and Shaunie, 32, wed Dec. 26, 2002, in a lavish ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Shaq, then with the Lakers, gave Shaunie a ring with 17 carats of diamonds.
The two have a "Cohabitation/Prenuptial Agreement and Acknowledgment of Property Disclosure and Waiver of Further Disclosure," the petition says. A copy of their agreement "will be filed ... under seal" — if the court allows — and "contains extensive provisions providing for confidentiality and non-disclosure."
In the petition, O'Neal refers to the Star Island mansion as "the former marital home."
Shaunie, he says, has been "secretive about her assets ... particularly with respect to certain properties owned or titled in either her name alone or in other entities." He wants the court to order Shaunie to give a "correct accounting of all money, funds, stocks, bonds, and other securities (including bearer securities)" that she came into during the marriage.
He makes $20 million a year, with three years left on a five-year contract worth $100 million.
Shaunie should be "primary residential custodian" of their children — meaning they'd live with her — and he should get "liberal rights of visitation," he says.
Neither the O'Neals nor Elegant could be reached for comment. No word on who represents Shaunie. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Roberto Pineiro has the case.
Now damn. I surely didn't see this coming. Makes me wonder how long this has been going on, since Shaq is filing for divorce. Ole girl seems to have been on a serious shopping spree, and no telling how long it's been going on. Lawdy, Lawd. And I forgot they had another baby. Didn't even know it was a girl. At least there was a pre-nup and acknowledgement of property disclosure. In this case, there shouldn't be a problem with the judge granting Shaq's request for all of her assets she acquired during their marriage.
Thanks for posting this...I don't know what's wrong with my system
Anyway, I hope she purchased some of the things he's talking about with her own money from that hosting job she has down in Miami then maybe the judge will grant her those things since it's from her job and not his money.
From the looks of it, Shaunie was probably putting things aside for when this day came and he just found out about it and got pissed off. Or she probably put them aside and was going to file for divorce first but he beat her to the punch. I hope she has proof of his infidelities that could allow her to be granted with some of that money b/c it's no secret that Shaq gets around and that he is VERY generous to his mistresses.
At least the children will be well off b/c he loves his kids and I'm sure he'll do right by them.
I really didn't see this coming but I'm not surprised at all. This has been the year of divorces! I wonder who's next.....Kobe/Vanessa perhaps? I KID, I KID
