It should come as no surprise that for a person like Nick Cannon, who has fathered 12 children, trying to wrangle them all together and facilitate peaceful relationships among them is a Herculean task. Now, thanks to Abby De La Rosa—who shares three out of the bunch with him—she’s peeling back the layers of what that process looks like. And what she said just might surprise you.
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As we’ve told you before, Cannon has had 12 children by six different women since 2011. Now, De La Rosa is sharing the dynamics that come with him having so many other kids—and women—involved in their situation. Speaking in a new interview for the “Lovers by Shan” podcast, she revealed that while Cannon may live “his truth in different ways,” she also described the “Wild ‘n Out” host as “the best father, provider and partner.”
However, she also shared that they’ve had conversations about his “polyamorous” lifestyle, although it’s a label she says he rejects. As a result, she’s instead chosen to explain to their kids that their dad is simply just a person who has a lot of “love to give.”
“He also lives in this constant phrase: ‘If you label me, you disable me,’ so you cannot label him in any way, which is—I’m for it,” De La Rosa explained. “The label thing, I get it. I understand. But it’s also some truth to it so we’ve had many a conversations where it’s like, ‘No, I think you’re polyamorous.’ And ‘[He’s like] I’m not polyamorous! I’m not! I just love, I love.’”
She continued: “That’s actually what I have chosen to teach my kids is, ‘Daddy loves many people. Daddy has a lot of love to give. That’s just who Daddy is.’ And they know their brothers and sisters’ parents and Miss so-and-so and Miss That, Miss That.”
In one other interesting part of the conversation, De La Rosa explained that none of the women who share children with Cannon are in communication with each other. Even when it comes to bringing the kids together, the nannies will usually take the reigns even though she says they’re all committed to having somewhat of a healthy dynamic for the sake of kids.
“As for the mothers, we don’t have any communication with each other,” De La Rosa said. “We all live very separate lives. We’re all very individualized. There’s never no, ‘Let’s have the gatherings or Sunday dinners and things.’ Nick calls the shots, ‘Hey can I bring the kids? Hey can they have a play date on this day?’ And we agree or we’ll send the nannies to do it. That’s really it. We all live very individual lives. So, in a sense, it feels monogamous.”
However, she also admitted that while no woman was “blindsided” as to what he had going on, she still feels triggered at the sight of seeing Cannon having family time on social media with the other mothers from time to time.
“I think in hindsight it sounds cool, but then when you actually get in the grid of it, and you see what you see or you’ll see him on trips or you’ll see real family dynamics happening, it really triggers you and it really can get under your skin,” she said.
De La Rosa later added: “I just think for women, it’s really hard when you see that the person you were just hugged up on one day is hugged up in the same way with a whole other person… It’s not easy.”
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