Nick Cannon is once again defending his decision to father 12 children with six different women, insisting he’s not a “deadbeat dad.”
The 42-year-old host of “Wild ‘N Out” discussed his financial situation plus how he makes time for his kids during a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times.
“I hear all the time: ‘You can’t be present for all those children.’ So therefore I get this deadbeat dad title,” Cannon told the publication. “Right now the narrative is, ‘He has a bunch of kids.’ But I’m really at a place now where I don’t care what people know. I’d rather just operate. It’s more about really being a good person instead of telling people you’re a good person.”
The rapper and comedian said he works hard to make it all work. “When you think about my lifestyle, I have to generate at least $100 million a year,” he said. “Everybody thinks Ryan Seacrest has tons of money. I do everything that he does times 10. Well, not times 10 — times three. Because he does a lot.”
Cannon went on to say that he has so many children because his romantic partners wanted to have kids with him. “A lot of them are in the same age group,” he said of the women he was involved with. “And I just wanted to give them what they desired. I kept saying, ‘I can handle it.’”
Cannon shares 12-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe with ex-wife Mariah Carey. He and Brittany Bell have a son Golden, 6; daughter Powerful Queen, 2; and a 7-month-old son, Rise Messiah.
He is also a father to 22-month-old twins Zion and Zillion and 5-month-old daughter Beautiful Zeppelin with Abby De La Rosa. He shares his 10-month-old son Legendary Love with Bre Tiesi.
He and Lanisha Cole have a 7-month-old daughter named Onyx Ice. Cannon and Alyssa Scott share a 4-month-old daughter, Halo Marie. Cannon and Scott’s 5-month-old son, Zen, died in December 2021 from a brain tumor.
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The TV host explained that he has a schedule for spending time with the kids. “It’s not about what I do for you or what I say to you, it’s about how you feel when I’m with you. If you feel loved when you see your dad, that’s what’s gonna resonate,” he said.
Cannon also defended having multiple sexual partners, saying he was honest with all the women about his goals for a relationship, which he said was preferable to claiming to be monogamous and then cheating.
He said he decides which house to sleep at based on who he last talked to. “A lot of times it’s whichever of them has called me that day, to be honest. I am such a creature of habit. I like who like me,” Cannon told LA Times.
The celeb said just because he’s staying over doesn’t mean he’s having relations.
“Because everybody’s so busy, nobody’s looking to have sex with me,” he said. “Everybody’s focus is the children.”