Shaunie and her current husband, Pastor Keion Henderson, are each divorced, and their previous marriages ended with their children.

The “Basketball Wives” star has five children with her ex-husband, Shaquille O’Neal, while Keion has a daughter with his ex-wife, Felicia Henderson.

On the September 20 episode of Cam Newton’s “Funky Friday” podcast, Pastor Henderson explains his role with Shaunie’s children and divulges his relationship with her, the previous NBA star.

Towards the top of the nearly two-hour-46-minute video, Henderson explains how he and Shaquille work together to be present and supportive of Shaq and Shaunie’s children.

“We went to Me’arah’s graduation party and we went out on the field with her,” he said, referring to Shaq and Shaunie’s youngest child. He continued, “When she announced what school she was going to, we talked about when he was going to speak and when I was going to speak. I mean, bro, me and him. We both know there’s nothing to fight about because everything that happened happened before we met.”

Shaunie and Shaq were married from 2002 to 2011 and had six children of their very own.

Shaunie’s son, Myles, was young when she began dating Shaq, who had a daughter, Taahirah, each from previous relationships. Together they raised 4 children, Shareef, Shaqir, Amirah and Me’arah, within the O’Neal home.

During their marriage, Shaq filed for divorce from Shaunie in 2007, but before it was finalized, the 2 managed to reconcile and ultimately called off the divorce.

This only lasted about two years before Shaunie filed for divorce in 2009, and the couple tied the knot in 2011. Both Shaq and Shaunie later revealed that his infidelities contributed to the breakdown of their marriage.

But with all that behind her, the “Basketball Wives” executive producer remarried in 2022 to Henderson, senior pastor of The Lighthouse Church and Ministries.

Further explaining his relationship with Shaq, he told Newton, “He’s a grown man, I’m a grown man. He’s always respected me. I’ve always respected him. I think he would say the same thing. Nothing but love. No problems. Grown men don’t do that.”

“So we talked. We had events together. We’re good. We’re cool,” he added.

Henderson was married to his ex-wife Felicia Henderson for nine years, and the 2 had one daughter and two children, to whom he was a stepfather. So when it comes to determining his role in Shaunie’s kids’ lives, he already has some experience within the patchwork family department.

He said, “You have to know what a child needs. Because my wife’s kids, some of them were old enough — they didn’t need a father, they needed a friend. So I’m not walking in the door trying to be their father. They understand that.” When Henderson and Shaunie married, 4 of her five children were already adults — Me’arah turned 18 earlier this 12 months.

Knowing that almost all of Shaunie’s children were already adults, Henderson developed a technique for constructing relationships with them. “I learned what each child needed individually and I transformed myself into that void,” he said. “The problem with most people is they try to fill the corners where the furniture is. You just have to be what they need.”

“So I became what they needed,” he said, and it seems his strategy worked. He continued: “Our relationship is amazing. When I say amazing, I mean amazing. I’ve never had a problem, a side note, a line, ‘that’s not my daddy.’ We’ve never had one of those moments in our relationship history.”

Serena Williams’ near-death experience following the birth of her first daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian, in 2017 has resurfaced amid outrage over a Twitter post blaming black moms for their very own deaths during childbirth.

Studies have shown that the maternal mortality rate for black women is twice that of white women. In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that for each 100,000 live births, there have been 70 maternal deaths for black women.

On September 18, Joel Berry, editor-in-chief of the satirical website The Babylon Bee, sparked outrage amongst users when he posted a post that has since been deleted: “My wife is a maternity nurse and I can tell you with absolute certainty that these women have a higher mortality rate because they refuse to use prenatal care, they take more medications, they refuse to eat a proper diet, and they generally don’t take as much care of themselves.”

Outraged advocates for black women were quick to indicate that the tennis player’s self-advocacy saved her life. After an emergency C-section, Williams developed life-threatening complications, including blood clots in her lungs and legs. She also experienced a severe cough that caused the C-section wound to rupture.

The sports icon opened up in regards to the terrifying experience in a 2018 interview with “Today.” She said her persistent requests for a CT scan led doctors to find the blockages. “I can’t believe how much went wrong on the way to meet her. … I almost died,” Williams said.

She also opened up about her harrowing birthing story within the HBO documentary Being Serena, which was released the identical 12 months. The 23-time Grand Slam winner also told her medical team that she was at increased risk for potentially fatal blood clots after suffering a embolism in 2011.

There has been a backlash against the MAGA supporter online, with many pointing to Williams’ history to refute his claims. “The greatest athlete of all time IS BEING IGNORED ON THE SURGEON’S TABLE. Serena Williams almost fucking died in childbirth. I can’t believe it. Unlimited GALA,” one wrote tweet.

Second user common“Serena Williams almost died because she didn’t take her prenatal meds and took drugs??? Maybe… his wife could base her care on that assumption. Studies do show that drug use is highest among the most privileged, but carry on.”

Berry is “pro-life” and swears he’s not a racist. And I wouldn’t want his wife to take care of any black woman’s pregnancy, given those thoughts. https://t.co/VQ3QySxI7K

— @ijbailey (@ijbailey) September 20, 2024

Third tweet To read“It all makes sense. I mean, Serena Williams had serious complications during childbirth, and who eats worse than the world’s number 1 tennis player??” Another user called Berry’s wife’s claims “complete racist bullshit,” as one other person hoped she could be sued for violating her Hippocratic oath.

Two years later, in 2019, Williams helped Mahmee, a tech company hoping to rework prenatal and postnatal take care of moms and kids, raise $3 million.

A month before the couple’s second daughter, Adira, is due in 2023, Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian said People “They were obviously taking every precaution and doing everything they could to make sure everything went smoothly for Serena,” though he didn’t provide details on the measures being taken to make sure history didn’t repeat itself.

Another viral lie. Amber Nicole Thurman got sepsis after taking an abortion pill that did not remove all of the contents of her uterus. She didn’t get timely care from her abortion provider and died. Georgia law didn’t prevent her from getting the care she needed. Georgia law doesn’t… photo:twitter.com/nhJvgw1nNh

— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) September 18, 2024

Additionally, on September 18, Berry shared the tragic story of Amber Nicole Thurman, a Georgia mother who died in August 2022 from complications caused by a delay in receiving medical care attributable to that state’s anti-abortion laws.

Thurman, who was six weeks pregnant, went to a North Carolina clinic where she was given abortion pills. A number of days after the abortion was induced, she developed an infection attributable to fetal tissue remaining within the uterus.

The mother of one experienced significant blood loss and loss of consciousness, prompting her to hunt medical attention at Piedmont Henry Hospital. She required dilation and curettage, a procedure to empty the uterus of its contents, but was denied the care she needed for 20 hours.

This Young Georgia Mom Was Killed By An Abortionist After She Got Stuck In Traffic On Her Way To An Abortion Clinic, And The Clinic Refused To Book Her A Surgery Slot. Instead, They Sent Her Home With The Abortion Pills Mifepristone And Misoprostol, Which Caused Her Septicemia… https://t.co/H8fvm2wmq7

— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) September 18, 2024

While within the hospital, her organs failed before staff intervened. Her death was ruled “preventable,” in line with ProPublica. Georgia law prohibits doctors from terminating a pregnancy after six weeks, the time when the fetus has a detectable heartbeat.

Berry insists the black mother was “killed by the abortionist” who provided her with the pills, not because she was denied the life-saving procedure after she became unwell.