Nick Cannon is opening up about his past shaped his path to becoming a father of 12.
In a sit-down with The Breakfast Club, the TV host and actor, 44, admitted that becoming a dad of 12 was tied to trauma and the way he coped after his divorce from Mariah Carey.
“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. Because I had the the access to whoever and however I wanted to move and you know, okay, they coming at me, they asking me opposed to like doing a mature thing and saying, hey, well, it probably makes more sense to do this and and then obviously life happens as well.”
Cannon said his choices were about enjoying life rather than planning for the future. “It wasn’t like, oh, I’m going to go have 12 kids. It was more about like, yo, I’m going to just live life and have fun and whatever happens happens, I can handle it,” he said.
Now, reflecting as he approaches 45, Cannon admits he might have done things differently if he had taken more time to heal after his divorce. “If I would have thought the process through a little bit more and took time to actually do the inner work, things might have been a little different in certain scenarios.”
Cannon, however, made it clear that his children were all born from meaningful connections. “Every child that I had was made out of love and there were strong relationships,” he said, while acknowledging that if he had prioritized healing, he “probably would have took [his] time in a lot of other scenarios.”
As for his views on monogamy, Cannon says his perspective hasn’t changed. “Monogamy has never really been my thing,” he admitted, pointing to his unconventional upbringing and how it shaped his understanding of love.
While juggling life with multiple families, Cannon credits therapy for helping him grow. “Shouts out to all my therapists,” he said, revealing that he also does therapy alongside some of his kids and their mothers.
“I have family therapy with some of my kids, you know what I mean? Because there they have to understand that this is an unorthodox, non-traditional scenario and I want them to be in the healthiest space as possible,” Cannon added.
