Shaquille O’Neal admits he didn’t learn about the five love languages until after his divorce

Shaquille O’Neal, who has been divorced since 2011, continues speaking about his insights on love with the usual candor.

Fifteen years after his divorce, Shaquille O’Neal says he’s finally learned the Five Love Languages and can “meet them all.” 

During an appearance on the August 11 episode of the “Armchair Expert with Dax Shephard” podcast, the 53-year-old retired professional basketball player opened up about how he’s gained a deeper understanding of the Five Love Languages. 

“I was reading ‘The Five Love Languages,’ and I didn’t realize that sitting with your wife watching TV is not spending quality time with her,” he admitted.

He explained that he didn’t realize what quality time actually was until much later because when he first entered the professional basketball world, he wasn’t exactly popular or dating much. 

“And then when I hit that cover of ‘Sports Illustrated,’ [women were like] ‘I’m coming with you,'” he said. 

When host Shephard guessed that O’Neal’s love language is “words of affirmation,” the sports icon agreed, noting that was the first one he learned. When asked which others out of the five he could fulfil, which also include physical touch, gifts, and acts of service, O’Neal said he can “meet them all.” 

Shepherd clarified that “acts of service” isn’t simply writing a check, it’s sometimes manual labor like mopping the floor.

“Now, I can do that. Ten years ago, I couldn’t do that,” O’Neal quipped. 

O’Neal, who was married to Shaunie Henderson from 2002 to 2011, with whom he shares four children, has been open about where he fell short during his marriage in recent years. Henderson has since remarried and released a memoir detailing her side of the story. During an episode of his podcast, “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” he didn’t mince words when advising NFL player Jason Kelce to focus on his family. 

“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,” he said.