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Nick Cannon has opened up about having 12 kids, admitting he has been “careless” and “frivolous” in the process.
Alongside being a comedian and television presenter, Cannon is arguably just as well known for the number of children he has fathered.
Cannon has 12 children with six different women, the first of them being with his ex-wife singer-songwriter Mariah Carey, who share twins born in 2011. The pair got divorced in in 2016.
He went on to have three children with model Brittany Bell, two children with model Alyssa Scott, three children with Abby De La Rosa, one with real estate agent and reality TV star Bre Tiesi and one with model LaNisha Cole.
During an appearance on The Breakfast Club radio show, Cannon opened up about why he believes fathering so many children was a trauma response.
“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 access to whoever and however I wanted to move,” Cannon 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.’”
He explained: “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.”
Cannon went on, suggesting that, in hindsight, he knows he should have gone to therapy after getting divorced.
“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,’” Cannon said. “Now, you’re leaving trauma every step of the way instead of fixing it from its origin.”
One fan commented: “It’s really mature of him to be transparent in this way. He’s on a journey and is sharing his findings on his life along the way. I love this.”
Another said: “Hindsight is always 20/20. I’m happy he’s taking some time to reflect and hoping that he continues his inner work so both he and his children are able to enjoy their father.”
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