Nick Cannon has opened up about becoming the father of 12 children with six different women, admitting he could have gone about it differently.
Cannon, 44, first became a father when he welcomed twins Moroccan and Monroe with ex-wife Mariah Carey in 2011. Since then, he has welcomed ten more children: sons Golden Sagon and Rise Messiah, and daughter Powerful Queen with Brittany Bell; twins Zion and Zillion, and daughter Beautiful Zeppelin with Abby De La Rosa; son Legendary Love with Bre Tiesi; daughter Halo Marie and llate son Zen with Alyssa Scott; and daughter, Onyx Ice, with LaNisha Cole.
During a recent appearance on the morning radio show, The Breakfast Club, Cannon reflected on how his family expanded.
“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 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,’ Cannon said](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/09/15/20/32/GettyImages-2218954487.jpg)
“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,” he added.
“Things might have been a little different in certain scenarios.”
The show’s host, Charlemagne the God, then asked Cannon if he had done the “inner work,” would he still have 12 children? The Wild N’ Out creator admitted that he was not sure because every child was made “out of love.”
“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.
“Now, you’re leaving trauma every step of the way instead of fixing it from its origin.”
Cannon’s latest comments come after a March interview with People, in which he said he was “pressing hold” on adding to his family.
“I really don’t know. 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,” he said at the time.
“But I was just speaking of three years from now [or] five years from now, who knows? I’m not against it.”
