This season on Basketball Wives, the women dealt with one of the ugliest rumors ever. It was revealed several weeks ago that both Jennifer and Tami had been discussing claims Evelyn Lozada slept with Shaunie O’Neal’s ex.
After doing a bit of digging, it was clear that they were talking about Shaunie’s ex-husband Shaquille O’Neal, not her ex-boyfriend, Marlon Yates, Jr. The fact that the rumor was about Shaq just made it that much more explosive.
Evelyn slept with Shaunie’s ex? The backstory
The rumor was revealed earlier this season but actually came about over a year ago when Jennifer Williams allegedly told Tami Roman what she had heard.
From there, the two plotted to make sure Shaunie heard about the rumor, which was constructed to destroy the relationship between Evelyn and Shaunie.
That plan was hatched during a time when Jennifer Williams and Evelyn Lozada were at odds. However, Evelyn was a huge supporter of Jennifer when she was dealing with the Tim Norman break-up and his alleged stalking.
The two became friends and Jennifer forgot all about her plan to ruin Evelyn. But Tami Roman did not.
Instead, Tami started talking to the other ladies about the cheating rumor, with one of those ladies being Jackie Christie.
Tami knew exactly what she was doing. While Jackie didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, the topic came up and the rumor came out when Evelyn and Shaunie were both present.
Of course, that moment was explosive and we got to see a side of Shaunie that rarely comes out. Meanwhile, Evelyn swore on everything that she never slept with Shaunie’s ex. It was a nasty rumor that really could end their longtime friendship.
Jen gets the blame
Jennifer Williams took the brunt of the blame for the rumor about Evelyn, mostly because of information shared by Tami and Malaysia. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Tami tried to wiggle her way out.
However, when Malaysia Pargo revealed that Jen also told her about the rumor last year, it became clear that there was a plan to make sure Shaunie found out.
When Jennifer admitted that she told Malaysia about the cheating rumor, she did it so that Malaysia could do whatever she wanted with the info. “Whatever” meaning so that it could end up getting back to Shaunie.
That made Jennifer enemy number one for Shaunie, who decided she was completely done with the Basketball Wives OG. Shaunie avoided Jennifer and made it clear that what she attempted was unforgivable.
Fast forward to Amsterdam
Tami Roman didn’t go on the Basketball Wives trip to Amsterdam. Evelyn did, though, and she decided it would be the perfect time for Jennifer to talk to Shaunie.
Evelyn believed that Jennifer really needed to sit down with Shaunie to both tell her side and to apologize. Shaunie made it clear that she wasn’t interested in forgiveness.
In the latest Basketball Wives sneak peek, it was revealed that the meeting between Jennifer and Shaunie happened. The whole group (minus Tami) was there and Malaysia had some things to get off her chest.
Considering that the rumor reveal was set up so that Malaysia would be the one to break it to Shaunie, she has plenty of reason to be upset. She lights into Jennifer and calls her out for being “manipulative”.
Shaunie is just watching as the two go back and forth. At this point, it doesn’t look like Jennifer is going to receive the forgiveness she’s been looking for. And she may not even be welcome back on next season of Basketball Wives.
Will Malaysia or Shaunie ever be willing to forgive Jennifer? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Basketball Wives airs on Sundays at 9/8c on VH1.