Entertainer Nick Cannon says “it all makes sense” why he’s a father to 12 children with six separate women.
Admitting that he’s had “manifestations or even these visions” from God that have indicated he would have a bountiful brood, Cannon, 42, believes he’s found their meaning, as he explained in a podcast with Dr. Laura Berman.
“You get them in pieces or they’re fragmented,” he explained of unclear visions he’d have surrounding fatherhood. “And so, is it like the father Abraham conversation. . . . ‘You’re gonna be the father of many nations’?” he questioned, referencing the biblical story of God promising Abraham that he would make him “exceedingly fruitful,” among other things.
“I’ve never heard that clarity, but I heard that like, ‘Yo, you’re gonna be a father of many. There’s gonna be your great influence, your lineage, your offspring are gonna do great things.’ Like I’ve had that, and I’m like that, ‘Oh well . . . the more the merrier.’ We roll the dice to the name and what you will build.”
“I’m careful even how I talk about that because I don’t like to say, like, I don’t use the term ‘legacy’ anymore. ‘Lineage’ I’m comfortable with,” he added.
Nick Cannon and his son Golden Cannon with Brittany Bell smile on the red carpet. (Daniel Knighton)
“Legacy is about what you do, not what you produce. My children hopefully will have their own legacies; what did you mean to the world? If my legacy was to have children, that’s not impressive. I want my legacy to be someone who did for others, someone who built hospitals and education facilities, left literature and content to where you say, ‘Wow, he was a thinker. He was a doer. He cared about people.’ That’s your legacy,” he said.
“Now my lineage,” he clarified “That is my offspring.”
Nick Cannon is known for choosing unique names for his children. ((Photo by Bruce Glikas/WireImage)
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“I got in trouble about this too, before,” he said, acknowledging previous comments on the matter. “‘Cause people would ask me, am I done? And I’d always say, ‘Only God can let me know when I’m done.’ Because as much as I was open to every single child that I had, I can’t say the majority of them were planned. . . .If you would have told me in 2012 when I was still married, just diagnosed with lupus that 10 years from now . . . that I would have 12 children, I would be like, ‘f— out of here!'”
Nick Cannon has twins Monroe Cannon and Moroccan Scott Cannon with ex-wife Mariah Carey, pictured here in 2018. (JEAN-BAPTISTE LACROIX/AFP via Getty Images)
Cannon welcomed his 12th child in December, a daughter named Halo Marie, with Alyssa Scott. The couple are also parents to son Zen, who died in 2021 at five months old.
“My children are my priority,” Cannon explained of his pack.
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“I struggle with the idea of attempting to be everywhere at once,” he says, although “I’m pretty happy with the ratio in which I can be effective in my children’s lives” he noted.
