‘Dealing With Me Must Be Madness’: Nick Cannon Reveals The Secret To Co-Parenting With The Mothers Of His Various Children

Nick Cannon hosts The Masked Singer.
(Image credit: Fox)

Nick Cannon’s polyamorous lifestyle has fascinated people for years: Why are so many women having his babies? How does he keep up with all of those kids? The word “madness” seems to come to his mind, which sounds about right, as The Masked Singer host has fathered 12 children with six different women. Cannon recently opened up about the secret to co-parenting with multiple mothers, and he got real about what it must be like for them.

The oldest of Nick Cannon’s brood are Monroe and Moroccan, the 13-year-old twins he shares with ex-wife Mariah Carey. The youngest is Halo, who is the daughter of Alyssa Scott and will turn 2 in December. That’s quite an age range that he’s got, but he seems to be on top of things. When speaking with People this month, Cannon assured the magazine that co-parenting with all of his children’s mothers is going well, saying:

Yeah, I mean, to their credit, you know what I mean? Dealing with me must be madness.

I can only imagine what Nick Cannon’s schedule looks like, as he proudly makes time for each of his children. The All That alum has bragged about how involved he is with his kids, FaceTiming with them, driving them to school, attending extracurricular activities, guitar lessons, etc. He spends hundreds of thousands of dollars at Disneyland each year for god’s sake. So what’s the secret to happy co-parenting? Cannon says:

Just putting the kids first. At the end of the day, if you put the kids first and remove ego, you can do anything.

A lot of credit is due to all involved in the Cannon situation for being able to put their egos aside for the sake of the children. If there is drama amongst the parties, they’re pretty good about keeping it private. Bre Tiesi — the mother of Nick Cannon’s eighth child Legendary Love — has been especially complimentary of his parenting, saying he always makes time for his kids.

In fact, the reason there’s no dirty laundry being aired by all the women, Bre Tiesi claims, is because everybody’s happy. Nick Cannon really cares about his family, she said, and he wants to be involved.

That’s not to say there haven’t been hard times, and many people are disapproving of the nontraditional lifestyle — with some even going so far as to send death threats to one of his babies. Most of the time, however, Nick Cannon has a good sense of humor regarding people’s curiosities.

For instance, he brushed off Jimmy Kimmel’s joke at the 2023 Oscars about how many kids he had, and he called Kevin Hart’s gift of a condom vending machine “brilliant.” However, he kindly asked to be left out of the conversation surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic plan regarding a tax credit for newborns.

It has been a while since Nick Cannon has had a newborn, after all, and I’m sure his schedule is only getting busier as the kids get older. Only time will tell if 12 children are enough, or if he continues to add to his legacy. Until then, you can continue to catch Cannon on The Masked Singer, whose 12th season hits the 2024 TV schedule at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, September 25, on Fox.

Heidi Venable
Content Producer

Heidi Venable is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend, a mom of two and a hard-core '90s kid. She started freelancing for CinemaBlend in 2020 and officially came on board in 2021. Her job entails writing news stories and TV reactions from some of her favorite prime-time shows like Grey's Anatomy and The Bachelor. She graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a degree in Journalism and worked in the newspaper industry for almost two decades in multiple roles including Sports Editor, Page Designer and Online Editor. Unprovoked, will quote Friends in any situation. Thrives on New Orleans Saints football, The West Wing and taco trucks.