Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal reveals more about ‘dumbass mistakes’ that cost him his family

Shaquille O’Neal has continued to air his regrets, making it clear he should have been more grateful for his ex-wife, Shaunie, while they were married. 

During a recent episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” the seven-foot-one NBA legend spilled his guts to Jason Kelce, telling the Philadelphia Eagles center: “I made a lot of dumbass mistakes to where I lost my family and didn’t have anyone. I was an idiot … I lost my whole family. I’m in a 100,000-square-foot house by myself.”

Now, O’Neal has clarified that he wanted to share a hard-earned lesson from his 2002-2010 marriage. 

According to a friend, O’Neal confided after the interview: “The point I was trying to make is that I want other people to learn from the mistakes that I made. You get married, you make vows and you should be thankful for what you have. Stay with it. I want people, especially those in the public eye, to learn from me.”

“He is telling people to live in the present and care about their families because they can’t be replaced,” the friend told The Post.

The former basketball player is a proud dad to six children, more specifically, three daughters and three sons: Me’arah, 17, Shaqir, 20, Amirah, 21, Shareef, 23, Myles, 26, and Taahirah, 27, whom he shares with two former partners. 

He shares four of his children with his ex-wife Shaunie O’Neal. Shaq is also stepfather to Myles, a child that Shaunie had before they met

The athlete shares his oldest daughter with his former girlfriend Arnetta Yardbourgh, whom he dated for four years in the 1990s prior to meeting Shaunie.