Nick Cannon says past trauma fueled ‘careless’ decision to have 12 kids
Nick Cannon is speaking candidly on his decision to have 12 children with six different women.
During a Sept. 15 appearance on “The Breakfast Club,” the 44-year-old entertainer admitted that he was “careless” and “frivolous” in his early years of fatherhood due to not properly addressing past trauma.
He further admitted that the trauma was primarily a result of his 2016 divorce from singer Mariah Carey.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m the man now,’” he said of how he felt following the divorce after eight years of marriage. “And instead of healing and doing what I should have actually did, I just jumped out there.”
“I just didn’t do the work,” he added. “So then I looked up, 12 kids later, and I’m like, ‘Wow, I could have did things differently.”
Cannon and Carey started dating in 2008 and tied the knot later that year, according to People.
The couple welcomed twins Moroccan and Monroe in 2011 before announcing their split in 2014. Their divorce was finalized two years later, per the outlet.
Cannon didn’t welcome another child until 2017, but went on to add nine more kids between 2020 and 2022, according to People.
“It wasn’t like I was acting out,” he said in his interview with “The Breakfast Club.”
“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,” he added.
He did, however, admit that it wasn’t always his plan to 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.
Cannon says therapy helped him make sense of his past behavior
Cannon has been open about his mental health journey in recent years.
During a November interview with People, the “Drumline” actor announced that he had been diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), in addition to his past diagnoses with ADHD and dyslexia.
But it wasn’t until he started going to therapy that he made sense of his post-divorce trauma.
“Being almost 45 now,” he said on Sept. 15. “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.”
While he admits he wasn’t “mature” enough to make better decisions in his early days of fatherhood, he has since reflected on his past behavior and is committed to making better choices in the future.
Despite the reflection, Cannon says he doesn’t regret any of his 12 kids.
“I stand firm on all my decisions because I love all my kids. I love my family infrastructure. But I know it all started from a place of pain, and not really healing properly,” he told “The Breakfast Club.”
“Every child that I had was made out of love and they were strong relationships,” he added.
Following his divorce from Carey, Cannon welcomed two kids — Golden, born in 2017, and Powerful, born in 2020 — with model Brittany Bell, according to TODAY.
He then welcomed twins Zion and Zillion with radio personality Abby De La Rosa in June 2021, followed by son Zen — who died of brain cancer at 5 months old — with model Alyssa Scott one week later.
In 2022, Cannon welcomed five children — sons Legendary and Rise and daughters Onyx, Halo and Beautiful — with five different women, including Bell, Scott, De La Rose, Bre Tiesi and LaNisha Cole.
This story was originally published September 16, 2025 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Nick Cannon says past trauma fueled ‘careless’ decision to have 12 kids."
