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Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t want to pass judgment on some of the men involved in public cheating scandals because the NBA Hall of Famer has been in their shoes.
O’Neal shared his thoughts on The Big Podcast with Shaq in light of married Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine being exposed for DMing Instagram models, and former Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka being suspended for cheating on his longtime partner Nia Long with a team staffer.
The Hall of Famer reflected on how his infidelities in his marriage to Shaunie O’Neal negatively affected his family life and resulted in their 2009 divorce.
“I am going to step down from this conversation. I was a serial cheater,” admitted O’Neal, not passing judgment on the cheating scandals. It would be crazy and blasphemous for me to get up here saying boom, boom, bam. I can’t do that. I know these guys personally. I know they’re going through a lot because I went through a lot…”
“I did it. I was the best at it,” O’Neal said on cheating. “I’m not proud of it. I lost my family doing it. I lost valuable, important years with my children doing it.”
O’Neal also gave a resounding “No” when asked whether cheating is ever worth it.
“The happiest days of my life were coming home and hearing six different people saying, ‘Daddy, daddy, daddy,'” he explained. “Happiest days of my life. Forget the money, forget the cars, even the championships. Especially when they were little and 2 and 3 [years old] and didn’t really care that I missed 10, 15 free throws. They’re waiting for me after games. ‘Daddy, can we go to Universal?’ Those were the best days of my life.”
“When I lost those — not gonna use the ‘D’ word, because I know a lot of people are suffering — but I was all the way down,” O’Neal said on divorce. “Sometimes I’m still all the way down. Especially when I was in my house in Orlando, which is 70,000 square feet, in there by myself. Nobody. Like I built a house for the kids — gym, game room, pool house, guest house for the mom, and all that. When I lost all that by being stupid, it killed me.”
Beginning at around the 26:00 minute mark, watch the discussion down below.
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