*Shaquille O’Neal was spotted on a dinner date Sunday with a mystery woman who is now speaking out.
Kin Essentials CEO Dr. Jaime Johnston claims her recent outing with the NBA icon was all business. As reported by Page Six, “O’Neal referred to her as his “date” when they were ordering up chicken satays and martinis at Jue Lan Club last week,” the outlet writes. Johnston, however, insists that “it was not a date.”
“It was a business meeting, and lastly, I don’t engage in gossip stories,” she commented.
One witness told Page Six of Shaq and Johnson’s date: “they came by themselves, and they left by themselves.” Shaq also paid the bill for all the patrons in the restaurant, according to the report.
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“It was 40 tables and [the bill] was in excess of $25,000. He was in a great mood and was taking pictures with everyone. She was more lowkey. She didn’t really want to be noticed,” the source said.
Johnson posted a photo of herself on Instagram that she captioned “his favorite view,” but she did not mention or tag Shaq in the post (see above).
Here’s more from the outlet:
After we’d reached out about the non-date, we mysteriously received several cheeky text messages from a random number with photos of Shaq posing with various women — including a ’90s throwback pic of him and supermodel Cindy Crawford.
“More mystery dates for you to write articles about, silly man,” the unknown texter with an Alabama area code wrote us. But our “call could not be completed as dialed” said a robotic voice when we called the number back. Our return texts also went unanswered.
After our initial item ran, the retired NBA star subsequently addressed the dinner in an upcoming episode of his “The Big Podcast” with rumored girlfriend and co-host, “Entertainment Tonight” host Nischelle Turner, we hear.
Shaq and Turner have never confirmed or denied being boo’d up.
