Nick Cannon Admits Having 12 Kids Was a Trauma Response

The "Wild 'N' Out" host, who welcomed his eldest children in 2011, recently opened up about becoming a father of twelve, admitting that it wasn't the original plan.

Nick Cannon is getting candid about his unorthodox fatherhood journey. During his appearance on the morning radio show, "The Breakfast Club," on Monday, September 15, the comedian said welcoming his children the way he did was a response to his trauma.

"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.

He continued, "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.'"

"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 added.

Cannon first became a dad when he welcomed twins Moroccan and Monroe, now 14, with ex-wife Mariah Carey. After divorcing the singer in November 2016, he had 10 more children with five former partners.

The "Drumline" star shares sons Golden Sagon and Rise Messiah, and daughter Powerful Queen with Brittany Bell; twin sons Zion and Zillion and daughter Beautiful Zeppelin with Abby De La Rosa; son Legendary with Bre Tiesi; and daughter Onyx with LaNisha Cole.

Cannon also welcomed two kids with model Alyssa Scott: son Zen, who died at five months old in December 2021 after being diagnosed with brain cancer, and daughter Halo Marie.

When asked if doing the inner work earlier would have resulted in him potentially not having 12 children, Cannon replied, "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."

Still he acknowledged that had he done the healing work after divorcing Carey, he would have taken more time to think his actions through. He also added that he often thought getting into new relationships would help fix the trauma.

"[...] 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."