Shaquille O’Neal kicked off 2020 by speaking frankly about the realities of dating. In an interview with “In The Know,” he admitted what most people probably suspect — being a basketball icon definitely makes it easier to attract attention.
“For me, people always say, ‘You’re running game.’ And my response is, ‘When you have name, you don’t need game,'” said O’Neal.
However, as Diesel also noted, that’s only part of the story. Even stars like him face real challenges in the search for partners.
O’Neal on online dating
O’Neal was married to Shaunie O’Neal — now Shaunie Henderson — from 2002 to 2011. By the time of his interview, that chapter had long closed. Yet the Los Angeles Lakers icon made one thing clear: he wasn’t exactly on the market either.
“I used to be Shaqanova a long time ago, but not anymore,” he admitted with a smile.
However, had he still been in that “Shaqanova” phase by then, meeting new people certainly wouldn’t have been a problem. Like many ordinary folks, O’Neal could have just gone online to see who was out there. But as he admitted, that option actually wasn’t really open to him.
Most people using the world wide web, whether on Instagram or dating apps, he said, wouldn’t even believe his profiles were real — instead assuming they were fake or some kind of catfish scam. With that in mind, O’Neal said he started avoiding those platforms, showing that even a superstar can face unexpected obstacles in personal life.
Finding “the one”
For most people, making a good impression means coming up with clever icebreakers, pickup lines and all that. O’Neal said he never needed any of that — his name alone was enough to leave most women in awe.
That said, Shaq admitted that fame often made dating more complicated. Being a Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer with three Finals MVPs, one regular-season MVP and four NBA championship titles drew plenty of attention, but it didn’t make finding a genuine connection any easier.
That felt true even for him — a former superstar who had retired in 2011 after 19 seasons in the association — because he still hadn’t cracked the code for finding “the one.”
“How do you find the one?… I can’t answer that question. I wish I knew,” admitted the New Jersey native.
It’s unclear whether Shaq has since found an answer to that question. What is clear, however, is that his ex-wife, Shaunie, wasn’t it.
Reportedly, their relationship began in the late 1990s and ended in 2009 when Shaunie filed for separation. Throughout their marriage, they struggled with infidelity — something O’Neal openly admitted in his memoir, “Shaq Uncut: My Story.”
Ultimately, it was a slow unraveling, one O’Neal accepted responsibility for with remarkable honesty.
“I was bad,” he confessed while appearing on a 2022 episode of “The Pivot Podcast.” “She (Shaunie) was awesome. She really was. It was all me.”
Between 2003 and 2009, O’Neal was linked to Karrine Steffans, Dominica Westling and Laura Govan, though none of those relationships stood the test of time.
More recently, rumors linked the 53-year-old to famed OnlyFans model Sophie Rein — talk he waved off with his trademark bluntness.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Oct 29, 2025, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.