Nick Cannon previously admitted that the reason he has so many children is probably due to “careless activity.” But now, he’s suggesting that the “careless activity” was because he didn’t do “the inner work” he needed to do. The Masked Singer host has welcomed 12 children with six different women. During a recent appearance on The Breakfast Club, he suggested that he started “being frivolous” as a trauma response.
Critics saw Nick’s comments as evidence that “men will do anything but get therapy.”
In 2022, Nick Cannon welcomed five children with five different women.
Previously, during an interview withVulture, he admitted that this wasn’t exactly planned. “It was also a little bit of, like, ‘Okay, God, how did I have five kids in one year?’” Nick admitted at the time. “Probably careless activity.” He also claimed that he did it to help some of his “single friends who wanted kids.”
Now, he’s suggesting that it was actually a trauma response.
During his recent Breakfast Club appearance, Nick once again referred to his decisions as “careless” and even “frivolous,” which made some people feel sorry for his children. On Reddit, critics blasted him for it, with one writing, “Can’t wait till my dad tells me I was a careless and frivolous decision.”
Another critic wrote, “‘Who’s daddy’s cutest little trauma response? You are! yes, you are!’ Those poor kids …” Explaining what he meant in more detail, Nick said that he didn’t decide to have so many children. Instead, he was just having fun and seeing what happened without thinking too much about the consequences because he “could.”
“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.'”
In retrospect, he views it a bit differently.
Admittedly, things might’ve turned out differently if he had actually done “the inner work” first. “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,” he continued. “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.'”
“Now, you’re leaving trauma every step of the way instead of fixing it from its origin,” he added.
He did clarify that all of his children were ‘made out of love.’
Based on Nick’s comments, host Charlemagne tha God asked if he thought he would’ve had fewer kids if he had done “the inner work.” The question was hard for Nick to answer. “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,” he explained.
Some critics wish he would stop trying to justify it.
Nick’s admission that he had so many kids in response to trauma was not really surprising to anyone, but many people still didn’t see it as an excuse. “Just stop talking about it and justifying it,” one critic wrote on Reddit. “Regardless of his financial means, there’s no way he can be physically present in all 12 kids lives. Not in a meaningful way.”
Previously, Nick admitted that he felt “spread thin” as a father. “Being a father of multiple kids, it’s always the biggest guilt on me is that I don’t get to spend enough time with all my children,” he said in 2022.
Still, critics suggested that he maybe should’ve considered that before having so many children. “This just in: man learns the consequences of his stupidity,” one of them wrote.
Someone else concluded, “Men will have 12 kids instead of going to therapy.” However, others seemed more optimistic. “Good that he reflects on it,” one person noted. “He [still has] time to be a good dad to all his kids.”
