Father-of-12 Nick Cannon has admitted "careless activity" is "probably" why he had five children in 2022. Video / Bang Showbiz
Nick Cannon became a father to 12 children because he was “careless” and should have taken more time to heal from the “trauma” of his divorce.
The TV star was married to singer Mariah Carey between 2008 and 2016 and they are parents to 14-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe. Healso became dad to 10 more children from other relationships and he’s now opened up about the reasons behind his large brood – admitting he never intended to father so many kids.
During an appearance on The Breakfast Club radio show, he said: “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.
“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’.”
As well as his twins with Carey, Cannon is also dad to Golden, 8, Powerful, 4, and Rise, 2, with Brittany Bell; 3-year-old twins Zillion and Zion and Beautiful, 2, with Abby De La Rosa; Legendary, 2, with Bre Tiesi; Onyx, 2, with LaNisha Cole; and 2-year-old Halo with Alyssa Scott, the mother of his late son Zen who died aged 5 months in 2021.
Cannon went on to insist he was damaged after his split from Carey and needed to do more “inner work” to heal after the break-up.
Nick Cannon emphasised the need for "inner work" after his split from Mariah Carey to prevent hasty decisions. Photo / Getty Images
He said: “Being almost 45 now, I could sit back and like, yeah, 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.
“I don’t know ... because I’ve always said this, every child that I had was made out of love and there were strong relationships.
“If I would have did the work [and] the healing after getting divorced, I probably would have took my time in a lot of 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’.
“Now, you’re leaving trauma every step of the way instead of fixing it from its origin.”
Cannon recently said he’s going to “press hold” on having any more children right now but he’s “not against” expanding his family again in the future.
He told People: “I really don’t know [about having more children]. I’m being honest. I’m having so much fun in this space right now, and the way my bank account is set up, I’m going to press hold on this 12 for right now.
“But I was just speaking of three years from now [or] five years from now, who knows? I’m not against it.”
