Shaquille O’Neal and his wife of five years, Shaunie Nelson, filed divorce papers Tuesday in Miami. While there is a prenup, the Shaq divorce isn’t going to be pretty. Seems Shaq is accusing Shaunie of financial shenanigans and hiding significant marital assets.
Shaq, 35, and Shaunie, 32, were wed Dec. 26, 2002, in a lavish wedding ceremony at the ritzy Beverly Hills Hotel. Shaq, then still with the L.A. Lakers, gave Shaunie a wedding ring with a honking 17 carats of diamonds.
In Shaq’s divorce filing, he references a ”Cohabitation/Prenuptial Agreement and Acknowledgment of Property Disclosure and Waiver of Further Disclosure.” Basically, the prenup is ironclad, but Shaquille suspects Shaunie of hiding assets going into the divorce.
Shaunie, he says, has been ‘’secretive about her assets . . . particularly with respect to certain properties owned or titled in either name alone or in other entities.” Shaq 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.
As we all know, bearer bonds are as good as cash, but infinitely more discreet and highly portable. Looks like this one will get ugly over the money issues. Shaq is currently paid $20 million a year by the Miami Heat with two more years on his contract. He also has extensive business and real estate holdings in both his name and others held jointly with Shaunie.
Custody of the children is not being contested in the divorce and Shaq refers to his palatial $18 million estate on Miami’s exclusive Star Island as “the former marital residence,” so it looks like the big guy will be “batching” it for a while.
