Source: Courtesy of / Reality with The King
Basketball Wives original cast member Royce Reed recently spilled the tea on Shaunie Henderson allegedly crafting her tumultuous four seasons on the show from its inception.
On the Nov. 7 episode of the Reality with The King podcast, Royce described being on the show while Shaunie was a cast member and an executive producer as a “blessing and a curse.” The mother of one — who shares a teen son with Dwight Howard — claimed Shaunie would view clips of the cast on the backend then feed selective people—Evelyn Lozada and Jennifer Williams—information to cause drama. Moreover, Royce suggested there were several instances when she was intentionally and unfairly painted in a bad light.
The former Miami Heat dancer provided an example of a situation where she informed the executive producer of Basketball Wives before they started filming for Season 1, that Shaquille O’Neal had sent her flirty texts while he was still married to Shaunie.
Royce claimed Evelyn accusatorially threw the texts in her face the day after she had an off-camera one-on-one chat with Shaunie. The latter conversation supposedly happened during Season 1’s filming, and Royce said she opened up to the show’s executive producer, feeling like she was being villainized in the cast.
Royce told podcast host Carlos King that things between her and the other women were “fine” but “boring” while filming Season 1 until they filmed the pool party scene, where she infamously twerked like her life depended on it in a dance competition.
The 43-year-old recalled her intuition telling her that dancing in the competition wasn’t a good idea. She also said the girls hyped her up directly after the dance competition but slammed her for it the next day.
The former dancer said, “It came out of nowhere — these girls were just cool with me and now all of a sudden, I make you look bad?”
Ultimately, Royce said she felt betrayed by the cast for flipping the script on her just to make good TV.
The impact of the women’s scrutiny, followed by those on the internet, made her feel so embarrassed that she briefly distanced herself from her loved ones. After processing her hurt emotions, she explained on the podcast that she settled into being the person who had to “get [those] bitches together.”
“I definitely — I learned quick,” she told King. “I think it taught me a lot about strength and realizing, ‘Okay, now I’m really gonna have to fend for myself and have to defend myself a lot.'”
“You wanna make a show and you wanna use me as your punchline? Then I’m going to be the star,” Royce added.
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