Leaving it to fate! Nick Cannon is staying busy as the father of 12 children — but that doesn’t mean he’s not open to expanding his family in the future.
“God decides when we’re done, but I believe I definitely got my hands full,” Cannon, 42, told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published on Friday, February 24. “And I’m so focused. I’m locked in. But when I’m 85, you never know. I might [have more].”
The Drumline star welcomed his 12th child, daughter Halo, with Alyssa Scott in June 2022 — less than two years after the pair’s 5-month-old son Zen tragically died of a brain tumor.
Cannon also shares 11-year-old twins Monroe and Moroccan with Mariah Carey and twins Zion and Zillion, 12 months, and daughter Beautiful, 3 months, with Abby De La Rosa. He is dad to sons Golden, 6, and Rise, 5 months, and daughter Powerful, 2, with Brittany Bell. The rapper shares son Legendary, 7 months, with Bre Tiesi, and daughter Onyx, 5 months, with LaNisha Cole.
“Everybody thinks it’s time management. It’s energy management,” he told ET on Friday about balancing his large brood. “[Because] once we’re all aligned, the flow is a lot easier. If there’s any kind of low frequencies or dissension in there that’s what messes up the scheduling. As long as we’re all on the same page and we all got the same goal — to be the best parents we could possibly be — that works and then the scheduling is the scheduling.”
While Cannon has often faced criticism for his ever-expanding family, the All That alum couldn’t be happier with the way his life has turned out. Moving forward, he plans to help all his children accomplish whatever dreams they hope to achieve.
“It’s a blessing, man, like, hopefully, because of what I am able to do, my kids can do whatever they want to do, to be able to be in a position that if they want to be a nuclear physicist,” he explained. “I know somebody at an Ivy League school that I could [hit up]. If they want to go into the military, if they want to be artists, if they want to be actors, it’s a thing where we have the capability. Let’s start talking about it now so we can help your dreams come true.”
There are some things, however, that the comedian knows should be left to his children’s mothers. After seeing daughter Monroe and her mom, Carey, 53, team up with Kim Kardashian in a TikTok video on Monday, February 20, Cannon told ET that the 11-year-old has the “entertainment bug” — but he is letting the “Fantasy” singer lead the way.
“[You can] definitely see that connection with her and her mom. It’s beautiful, the fact that they get to have fun with each other,” he said. “Her and Mariah they doing what they do. I don’t even know if I’m allowed to talk about it, ’cause Mariah’s like, ‘Let me handle this. I got this.’”
The “Honey” artist and the former Wild N’ Out host tied the knot in 2008 and welcomed wins Monroe and Moroccan in 2011 before splitting in 2014. Their divorce was finalized two years later.
The twosome have been focused on coparenting amicably ever since.
“Mariah and Nick are really great coparents and have a good relationship [and] friendship now,” an insider exclusively told Us Weekly in February 2022. “They’re in a good place and they’re supportive of each other no matter what. As long as Roc and Roe are still very much a part of Nick’s life, which they are, and he gives them equal attention, that’s what she solely cares about. They spend a lot of time with Nick, and he seems to balance time well with all the children.”
