Father-of-12 Nick Cannon reveals why he had so many children

Nick Cannon has confessed that being 'careless' led to him welcoming 12 children into the world with multiple different women.

The actor, rapper, and comedian, 44, and his offspring could seriously give the cast of Cheaper By The Dozen a run for their money at this point.

He first welcomed twins Moroccan and Monroe with former wife Mariah Carey in 2011, but the size of his brood seriously began to boom after their divorce was finalised in 2016.

Cannon then had three children - Golden Sagon, Powerful Queen, and Rise Messiah - with model Brittany Bell.

Then came twins Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir, as well as Beautiful Zepplin, who he shares with social media influencer Abby De la Rosa.

The Wild 'N Out host also fathered Onyx Ice with Lanisha Cole and Legendary Love Cannon with Selling Sunset star Bre Tiesi.

Cannon's son with Alyssa Scott, Zen, sadly passed away at just five months old after being diagnosed with brain cancer, before the pair then went on to have daughter Halo Marie.

Needless to say, the San Diego-born TV personality has plenty of pint-sized people keeping him busy.

Twelve kids don't come cheap either, as Cannon previously revealed he spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year at Disneyland.

The price of parenthood, eh?

Cannon reflected on his experience of becoming a father during a recent appearance on The Breakfast Club, telling the radio show hosts that he didn't exactly plan on having that many kids.

He insisted that each of his children have been 'made out of love', but believes 'things might have been different' if he had navigated his divorce from Carey differently.

The Love Don't Cost a Thing actor explained that he reckons that his penchant for putting a baby into people relates back to trauma he experienced during both his childhood and adult life.

"I'm learning that now," Cannon said. "It wasn't like I was acting out. It was more of being careless, being frivolous with my process because I could do it.

"Because I had the money, because I had the access to whoever and however I wanted to move. Then, obviously, life happens as well.

"So it wasn't like 'Oh, I'm gonna go have 12 kids!' It was more about like, Yo, I'm gonna just live life and have fun and whatever happens, happens. I can handle it'."

He admitted that he may not necessarily be a father of a dozen children if he would have 'thought the process through a little bit more' and had 'took time to actually do the inner work'.

"Things might have been a little different in certain scenarios," Cannon continued.

He said he 'doesn't know' whether he would still have so many children if he had done the 'inner work' he mentioned, adding: "I've always said this, every child that I had was made out of love and there were strong relationships."

Getting candid about his fatherhood journey, Cannon concluded: "If I would have did the work [and] the healing after getting divorced, I probably would have took my time in a lot other scenarios.

"And for whatever reason I thought that was the answer a lot of times.

"Like 'Oh, I'm gonna figure it out over here!' Now, you're leaving trauma every step of the way instead of fixing it from its origin."