Nicki Minaj and Kenneth Petty experienced some challenges in their marriage after welcoming their son three years ago.
For those who don’t know, the rapper and her husband first met in the ’90s when they attended the same high school in New York City. After losing contact, they reconnected again in 2018 and got hitched the following year. They welcomed their son shortly after, in 2020.
Although Nicki has not publicly revealed their little one’s name, she often calls him Papa Bear on social media. And three years after giving birth, the 40-year-old is opening up about motherhood — and all the challenges that came with it — in a new interview with Vogue published on Thursday.
Related: Nicki Minaj Tells Fans To Stop Spreading Hate ‘On My Behalf’!
During the early days of having a newborn, Nicki shared she and Kenneth received little help from their family, except for a few brief visits from a grandparent. Looking back on that time, she felt exhausted more than she ever had been in her life before. Not even her three massive world tours wore her out as much as being a mom to a newborn did! And it was during that time she recalled to the outlet that her marriage to Kenneth really struggled:
“I’m not going to lie, things got testy between us. Because of our history, I think we knew we’d get past it. But there’s no such thing as confidence in parenthood. I kind of wish that someone had told me — although I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to understand it — that there’s a level of anxiety, and you think it’s going to go away, but in fact it gets scarier. So often you think: I don’t know how to do this!”
Being a parent certainly isn’t easy. However, you also would think that on top of the stress of motherhood, her husband’s controversies would’ve added to the rough patch in the relationship. But as we’ve seen time and time again from Nicki, she continues to stand by Kenneth. In fact, she doesn’t even address any of the scandals in the piece!
Perezcious readers will recall Kenneth was convicted of attempted rape in 1995 for assaulting a then-16-year-old girl. He served more than four years in prison for his crime. In recent years, though, Kenneth has continued to face a ton of legal drama – including getting three years probation for failing to register as a sex offender in California and being placed on house arrest for threatening Cardi B’s husband, Offset. Kenneth and Nicki also were sued by his rape accuser Jennifer Hough after they allegedly bribed her to change her story.
And through all of this, Nicki has continued to support him. So we guess we shouldn’t be surprised she doesn’t say anything about the controversies at all in her Vogue article. Instead, Nicki went on to gush about their relationship, saying:
“Because I’ve known my husband for so long, there’s an ease we have with each other. We make each other laugh. We’re silly. And we’re always reminiscing about some old story. If it was a guy that I met as Nicki Minaj, I think I’d feel like they liked me because I’m Nicki Minaj, and what if I don’t look like Nicki Minaj every day? And that, combined with pregnancy, would probably have made me crazy.”
Hmm. You can see the photo spread for Vogue (below):
Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments.
[Image via Nicki Minaj/Instagram, Nicky Nelson/WENN]