Nick Cannon Says Having 12 Kids Wasn’t Just Fun—It Was Trauma Talking
Written by b87fm on 09/15/2025
Nick Cannon is finally admitting what many have speculated for years: his decision to father 12 kids with six different women wasn’t just about living wild—it was about coping with pain.
Sitting down with The Breakfast Club, the Wild ’N Out creator opened up about his mental health journey, revealing that the aftermath of his divorce from Mariah Carey pushed him into choices he now recognizes were rooted in trauma. When co-host Charlamagne Tha God asked if his massive family tree was a trauma response, Cannon didn’t dodge it: “Yes.”
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“I’m learning that now, and it wasn’t like I was acting out,” he explained.
“It was more being careless, being frivolous with my process, because I could do it, because I had the money, because I had the access to whoever and however I wanted to move… Opposed to doing a mature thing and saying, ‘Hey, well, it probably makes more sense to do this.’”
At the time, Cannon says it wasn’t some master plan to have 12 kids—it was more of a “whatever happens, happens, I can handle it” approach. But now, at nearly 45, he admits, “If I would have thought the process through a little bit more and took time to actually do the inner work, things might’ve been a little different in certain scenarios.”
When co-host Loren Lorosa pressed if he still would’ve had 12 children had he healed first, Cannon got real:
“I don’t know… Every child that I had was made out of love and they was strong relationships. If I would’ve did the work and the healing after getting divorced, I probably would’ve took my time in a lot of other scenarios.”
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Cannon added that instead of fixing his trauma at the root, he was just carrying it from one relationship to the next: “For whatever reason, I thought that was the answer a lot of times. It was like, ‘Oh, I’mma figure it out over here, I’mma figure it out over there,’ opposed to leaving trauma every step of the way.”
Cannon has long been transparent about his views on monogamy and relationships. Back in 2022, he revealed that he practices consensual non-monogamy, and in 2024, he confirmed he had been diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder—a revelation that sparked its own round of debates.
Now, his latest reflection feels like another layer peeled back: a man who built an empire, a massive family, and a complicated legacy—while trying to piece together what was broken inside.
