Nick Cannon found out he was going to be a father of an eighth child and decided to take drastic measures shortly after. The “Wild N Out” star said he took a vow of celibacy after hearing the news and reported feeling “out of control” over the situation.
The actor said back in October that he was going to “chill out” and try celibacy as a tactic, plus focus on being “the best father I can be, the best businessman I can be.”
However, news broke recently that Cannon and his model girlfriend Bre Tiesi were expecting a child together, which will be Cannon’s eighth. On an episode of his show this week, Cannon confirmed that he did not break his celibacy promise, but rather decided to commit to it upon finding out Tiesi was expecting.
“My therapist was one of the [people] who said I should probably be celibate and the reason why is because I had shared that news about Bre being pregnant,” he explained on the show, according to People. “That was the reason why I started my celibacy journey back then. So for anyone who’s thinking, ‘Oh he wasn’t celibate,’ I was!”
Cannon said that after finding out he was expecting his eighth child, he “didn’t know what to do” and was trying to “get a grasp” on his life.
“I felt like I was out of control and honestly, celibacy did help me through the journey of getting one with myself and being able to deal with this,” the “Masked Singer” host continued. He next admitted that he was “no longer celibate” and didn’t make it to New Year’s as he intended.
Asked how many babies “is enough,” the soon-to-be father of eight explained, “This is the thing…you can’t be like, ‘No, I’m done.’ Like, what if God says, ‘No, you not’? I was always like, ‘Yo, I want a big family,’ too. So, you know, the Lord has blessed me with what I asked.”
Cannon’s other children include 10-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe with ex-wife Mariah Carey, 4-year-old Golden “Sagon” and 13-month-old Powerful Queen, with Brittany Bell, and 7-month-old twins Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir with Abby De La Rosa. The actor is still grieving the loss of his five-month-old son Zen, who passed away in December from brain cancer.
Cannon also discussed his hesitation in sharing the news of the new baby following the death of Zen.
“This was always in the back of my mind, like, ‘What is the right time? How do I share this?'” he said on his talk show. “I wanted to definitely respect the grieving process with [Zen’s mom, Alyssa Scott], and Bre was respectful enough—she held off making our announcements and speaking on social media.”
“I misspoke and probably went too much into detail on Monday expressing my feelings,” Cannon continued.
“It felt like I was probably making some comparatives or probably discussing when talking about the passing of my son Zen, and then also talk about the new child that I’m expecting and I didn’t have to do that. I didn’t need to do that because those are two completely separate moments in my life and in life.”
Cannon posted photos from the gender reveal party to his Instagram page this past weekend. The baby is due later this year.