Shaunie O’Neal ‘Bothered’ By Jackie Christie’s Controversy w/ Daughter, Denies Not Wanting Brandi Maxiell On ‘Basketball Wives’

Shaunie O’Neal On Jackie Christie & Brandi Maxiell

Shaunie O’Neal talks to “The SCOOP With The Hip-Hop Socialite” about he rumors surrounding Basketball Wives, if Evelyn Lozada attempted to block Jennifer Williams to the show, and Jackie Christie’s situation with her estranged daughter, and if she didn’t want Brandi Maxiell to return to the show.  Check out highlights below.

Jennifer Williams

ON IF EVELYN TRIED TO BLOCK JENNIFER WILLIAMS FROM RETURNING TO THE SHOW:

False, it’s false. Well, clearly it’s false because we’ve seen that she’s filming already. That’s out there in the atmosphere that she’s filming, so it had nothing to do with Evelyn why she wasn’t…actually, let me say this. At the beginning of the season, it wasn’t even a discussion because we had all these new girls, and so it wasn’t like a thing at the beginning of the season. Later on, it became a thing, but it was way above Basketball Wives, it was way above production, it went to like a network thing, yes or no. It was out of our hands because I’ve been cool with Jennifer coming back for a minute, but there were some other complicated issues that are completely out of our hands that had to be fixed on a whole other level than anything to do with ‘Basketball Wives’.

Jackie Christie

ON JACKIE CHRISTIE’S SITUATION WITH HER ESTRANGED DAUGHTER:

You know, I feel the same way you do about Jackie – she’s a sweetheart, she’s never done anything to me, and I’ve never had a reason to have any problems with Jackie, ever. To this day, I don’t personally have an issue with Jackie Christie, but I said this earlier to someone that I just don’t understand what is going on with that entire situation. And I’ve sat down with Jackie because I didn’t know Jackie even had grandkids until this incident happened. Never heard any mention of grandkids, which is odd to me – I don’t have grandkids, but I would imagine if I did, the world would know because I just would be a proud grandmother. And knock on wood because I don’t want no grandkids no time soon, but I’m saying that to say that it was shocking that she even had grandkids. And then when find out that she has them this way was like, oh my God! What the heck is going on? And then I’ve got all these questions like everybody else like why did she have to start of GoFund [GoFundMe]. I’m sure Jackie would have helped her – this just doesn’t make sense. So, I asked her, and I don’t’ want to put her business out there because I don’t know if she wants the world to know that or not, but it was a lot of reasons why Jackie gave as far as her relationship with her daughter. To me, as a mother, and I just don’t want to throw shade on anybody because I feel like whatever her truth is, is her truth, and whatever she did or doesn’t do is her. But me as a mom, I don’t really care what my relationship is with my child at that point if there’s a grandchild involved that is hurt, that needs me; if it’s a grandchild involved, and it’s a birthday or birth, I’m going to be there, you know what I mean? You’ve damn near are going to have to move to another country and hide and I can’t find you for me to not be involved in some way, especially a tragedy, you know what I mean? I just would have jumped on a plane and been there, and I can’t fathom any reason why she wouldn’t. But she apparently has a reason why she wasn’t there that she stands by and she’s okay with, and if that’s the way she feels, who am I? That wouldn’t be me, but she stands by her decision, and it’s heartbreaking because every Monday, her daughter goes in on Twitter and any other social media that she can kind of defending…not really defending, but telling her truth. Like that’s not true, or this and that, and it’s like you keep finding out more and more, and you’re like, what the hell? I cannot wrap my head around how this is okay, at all.

I even told her to her face, so this will not be news, that I’m choosing to remove myself from any story line about it, any conversation about it because a – Jackie has always been so sweet and so nice and all those…she’s supportive, she’s all these wonderful things, and she’s always been that to me, but this situation, I’m so bothered by, that I’m torn too. Like I don’t…I believe it, but I don’t want to believe it – I don’t want to believe that that’s the Jackie Christie I know. And what reasons she gave me, to me aren’t…they just still don’t match, you know what I mean? But I don’t…like I said, I still go give Jackie a hug, and I still like her, but this right here, I don’t even know. I just have chosen to not have an opinion, not say anything because she’s very sensitive about it, and it’s caused a lot of tears and a lot of conversations this season, you’ll see. It gets really real, and actually, it still is very, very real right now because we’re still filming. So it’s a very sensitive subject, and there’s a lot of opinions, but there are some that are riding and dying with Jackie and the whole thing, so I don’t know. Girl, I just try to stay out of it.

Brandi Maxiell

ON IF SHE DIDN’T WANT BRANDI MAXIELL TO RETURN TO THE SHOW:

That’s false – I didn’t really care. It actually came to me before the season started that she was not going to asked to return. It wasn’t anything she had done or whatever, it was just like we were going for a new look, and as well as when Evelyn decided to come back, they just felt like some people weren’t needed, you know what I mean? Or let’s kind of just start fresh. So we did that, and along the way, they decided well let’s have a little…Malaysia, let’s have Malaysia kind of fill in and see how that goes. And we did that, and Malaysia needed her friend, and so then Brandi comes…I think Brandi might be in two episodes, maybe three at the most. So she’s not there much because I think ultimately, it just didn’t work out. We organically did not know that there were some issues there with other cast members, and I don’t want to give away anything because it comes out during the season, but we didn’t know behind closed doors that in real life, there were some issues. So when Brandi came back, it was like, oh okay, so this might not work out. And Malaysia is back, but she’s not even back as much as you think, you know what I mean? But Malaysia is a staple for LA – she’s been there since the franchise in LA started, so she’s in our opening credits, she’s there because we definitely want to show her that respect and that we appreciate her, but she’s not even in the season that much.

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