Nick Cannon has 12 kids by six different women.
This is simply a fact and it’s also been a source of some humor and some mockery over the years when it comes to the The Masked Singer’s habit of procreating on such a frequent basis.
But Cannon appeared Monday on the radio show The Breakfast Club and at last opened up about fatherhood… tackling this topic in a rather serious manner.
“It wasn’t like I was acting out. It was more of being careless, being frivolous with my process because I could do it, because I had the money [and] because I had the access to whoever and however I wanted to move,” he said.
“Then, obviously, life happens as well, so it wasn’t like ‘Oh, I’m gonna go have 12 kids.’ It was more about like, ‘Yo, I’m gonna just live life and have fun and whatever happens happens. I can handle it.'”
It sounds as if Cannon has some regrets.
‘“I didn’t get a chance to slow down until I got in therapy,” the 44-year old went on. “But I was just like, ‘Look, I just got to keep making money. I got to stay hot. I got to stay funny.’ And everything else figured itself out. And I just didn’t do the work. So then I looked up with 12 kids later. Wow, I could have did things very differently.””
After host Charlamagne Tha God asked point-blank if Cannon believes having “all those kids was a response to [Cannon’s divorce] trauma,” the Drumline actor replied:
“Yeah. I’m learning that now.”
Cannon does his best to make time for all his children.
But there are 12 of them. There are six mothers. It’s just not feasible to be an active father.
“I stand firm on all of my decisions because I love all my kids,” Cannon also clarified. “I love my family infrastructure. But I know it all started from a place of pain and not really healing properly.”
DEEP BREATH HERE, FOLKS…
Cannon shares twins Moroccan and Monroe with ex-wife Mariah Carey; sons Golden Sagon and Rise Messiah Cannon and daughter Powerful Queen with Brittany Bell; twins Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir and daughter Beautiful Zeppelin with Abby De La Rosa; son Legendary Love with Bre Tiesi; and daughter Onyx Ice Cole with LaNisha Cole.
Cannon is father to two children with Alyssa Scott — son Zen, who died at five months old in December 2021 after being diagnosed with brain cancer, and daughter Halo Marie Cannon.
In the past, he’s sort of been flippant about all this baby-making, even joking at one point that he’d love to father a kid with Taylor Swift.
This is the most reflective we’ve ever heard Cannon on the subject.
“If I would have did the work [and] the healing after getting divorced, I probably would have took my time in a lot other scenarios and for whatever reason I thought that was the answer a lot of times, like ‘Oh, I’m gonna figure it out over here,’ ” he said at one point.
“Now, you’re leaving trauma every step of the way instead of fixing it from its origin.”
For now, he’s “pressing hold” on having any more kids — which is NOT to say he doesn’t adore the children he has already helped make.
“I’ve always said this, every child that I had was made out of love and there were strong relationships,” Cannon said.
Carey and Cannon settled the terms of their divorce in November 2016 after separating in December 2014.
The exes agreed to joint custody of their twins and each kept the earnings they made during their marriage.