Nick Cannon Brags That He’s ‘Never Overwhelmed’ as Dad of a Dozen & No, He’s Not Kidding

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What’s a couple kids — or a dozen! — when you’re a multi-millionaire? The Nick Cannon’s Big Drive executive producer apparently doesn’t sweat fatherhood, and in a recent interview, he even bragged about that fact that he is “never overwhelmed” despite having 12 children. (Leave it to a man to make parenting look easy.)

As a quick recap, Cannon is dad to 13-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe, with ex Mariah Carey; Golden Sagon, 7, Powerful Queen, 3, and Rise Messiah, 1, with Brittany Bell; 2-year-old twins Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir, and Beautiful Zeppelin, 1, with Abby De La Rosa; Legendary Love, 1, with Bre Tiesi; Onyx Ice Cole, 1, with LaNisha Cole; and Halo Marie, 1, with Alyssa Scott. He and Scott also welcomed son Zen in 2021, who died at 5 months old from brain cancer.

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Nick Cannon at the "Soul Train Awards" 2023 on November 19, 2023 in Los Angeles, California (Photo by Elyse Jankowski/Billboard via Getty Images)
Nick Cannon at the “Soul Train Awards” 2023 on November 19, 2023 in Los Angeles, California (Photo by Elyse Jankowski/Billboard via Getty Images)

But despite having fathered 12 children with six women, Cannon believes fatherhood is a breeze. “I’m never overwhelmed, because overwhelmed means like almost when you can’t handle it,” he told PEOPLE on Monday. “But I’m definitely overly energetic when it comes to all the energy that comes from my kids. I feel that daily. They drive me to thrive.”

“It’s definitely from the time I open my eyes to the time I get to close them at night, it’s all about the kids the whole time,” Cannon continued. “When you have 12, it’s definitely — they’re the pulse of all that I do.”

As a mom of three who has practically lived in a state of overwhelm since my first son was born almost 7 years ago, this reads more than a little insensitive to me. He’s never in over his head with these kids? They give him energy? Give me a freaking break! He’s clearly never spent endless nights with a colicky baby who would rather scream for hours than just go to sleep, or had to breastfeed until his nipples were sore and bleeding, or navigated a preschooler and a toddler fighting while attempting to keep a newborn happy at the same time. He’s never had to strategically budget to make sure he could feed everyone or struggled to pay a daycare bill. He doesn’t want to admit that he “can’t handle it”? I admit that every damn day!

I love my kids, but they drive me up the wall sometimes (especially when they are bored at home over summer break while I still have to work!). The fact that Cannon thinks parenting is no big deal when he has a net worth of $50 million, according to CelebrityNetWorth.com, he can afford nannies and big parties and trips to Disneyland, and he doesn’t even live with his children — I mean, c’mon! What do you want, a trophy because you never felt stressed out? Whoop-di-doo to you.

Speaking of doing the bare minimum, Cannon has to work on Father’s Day, so he expects all his baby mamas to bring the kids to the set of The Masked Singer while he’s filming. “It’s supposed to be a day where I get to rest, but I want to give all my kids the opportunity to connect and give me gifts, and all that type of stuff,” he told PEOPLE. “It’s a fun day and I appreciate all the love that I get on that day.”

He’s also looking forward to handmade gifts (did he help the kids do this for Mother’s Day?! Somehow, I doubt it). “I’m getting the macaroni necklaces, the construction paper card, all of that stuff, which I love,” he continued. “My offices are filled with great gifts that my kids have created and conjured up.”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 30: Nick Cannon visits the SiriusXM Studios on November 30, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 30: Nick Cannon visits the SiriusXM Studios on November 30, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)

The Wild & Out alum added that he fully expects his kids to parent him. “Luckily, I’ve been blessed that me and my kids are super cool and I’m such a big kid at heart that I’m probably more mischievous than them, so they’re always keeping me in line,” he said. “Even as teenagers, they got to keep me straight, and stop me from getting more tattoos, and doing all type of wild stuff like that. They’re the parent.”

Oh, boy. Considering how Cannon just partnered with Dr. Squatch and took out an insurance policy on his testes for $10 million, per TMZ, yeah, we can see why he thinks his children are already more mature than he is.

Nick Cannon has a dozen kids — here’s what we know about each of them!

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