On Monday Nick Cannon made the announcement on his talk show that he was expecting another child, his eighth, with a model named Bre Tiesi. I’ve included the video of his announcement below. You can tell that he’s trying to be thoughtful and diplomatic while remaining vulnerable and open. Nick said, around minute 3:30, that this journey has been hard because he knew Bre was pregnant “before my youngest son, Zen, passed in December.” He said he struggled with the timeline of when to announce Bre’s pregnancy in light of Zen’s passing, that “we didn’t expect Zen to pass away” and that he had guilt over that. Nick and Bre wanted to respect Zen’s mother Alyssa Scott’s grieving process and held off making the announcement for that reason. The announcement of Bre’s pregnancy wasn’t planned and the paparazzi photos of the gender reveal party forced their hand, essentially.
Nick went into a lot of detail that wasn’t necessary and likely should have remained private. In a much briefer statement on his show yesterday, he said he shouldn’t have talked about Zen’s passing when he made the pregnancy announcement. Here’s US Magazine’s writeup about this and I’ve included both videos below.
Nick Cannon apologized on the Thursday, February 3, episode of his talk show for how he announced Bre Tiesi’s pregnancy three days prior.
[Nick] told his audience that he “misspoke” and “probably went into too much detail,” saying, “It felt like I was probably making some comparatives or probably discussing when talking about the passing of my son Zen and then also talking about the new child that I’m expecting. I didn’t have to do that. I didn’t need to do that.”
[Nick] called his late son’s December 2021 death from a brain tumor and Tiesi’s Monday, January 31, pregnancy confirmation “completely separate moments.”
[He] went on to say, “They both deserve the respect. … I know I can do better when dealing with delicate and sensitive discussions. So I promise you, I promise the mothers of my children, I promise my family that I [will] do better and continue to be more understanding, caring, compassionate, like they often show me each and every day.”
So did Alyssa tell Nick to keep her name and their late son’s name out of it? I’m thinking that’s what happened. Her initial public response was to tell people she was doing fine and that “It is painful having my son be part of conversations that aren’t in alignment with his light and legacy. It isn’t something I chose for him or myself.” It’s telling that it took three more days for Nick issue a correction. I’ll be gracious about this – Nick is trying very hard to be a good person and to be open and honest, both with the mothers of his children and with the public. He’s not the pastor of a church and he’s not telling his personal business to the congregation, he has a national talk show. There are some things which should remain private.
Nick’s pregnancy announcement
Nick’s apology
everything about him grosses me out
I mean… I think it would have been more awkward not to address Zen’s passing in announcing he was expecting another child. If he had just announced he was expecting another kid and not acknowledged Zen at all, he would have been criticized for that. So it was lose-lose and he had to address it somehow after the pictures of the baby shower came out. I didn’t watch his announcement so I don’t know how much detail he went into but this seemed like a situation that would be awkward and bizarre no matter what. No one plans to have a child die and have another child born in the span of 2 months because usually a normal person tries to expect only one child at a time with one partner. Obviously Nick and Alyssa never predicted losing their son just 5 months after he was born, this was not part of the equation when Nick was running around impregnating all these women last year. But I think Zen’s death may have made him realize that life is unexpected and doesn’t go according to plan and there is a downside to having so many kids in the span of just a few months. Children aren’t toys, they are living breathing individuals and they aren’t immortal. Hoping this is a “come to Jesus” moment for him.
Yeah, and I’m sure he is still processing and grieving what happened with baby Zen. Such a devastating thing to lose a child, I am sure it is on his mind constantly. I don’t think it’s wrong for him to talk about it per se, but his parental situation is more complicated than most and so he has a lot of other people’s feelings he needs to carefully consider and be sensitive to when saying anything about any of his kids.
This whole thing is so awkward and strange. His youngest children beside Zen are 7 months old and this new woman is already halfway through her pregnancy. It seems like a real psychological issue on his part, and I don’t know how these women can be okay with him getting them pregnant and then being absent unless they are using him as a donor.
Thank you. Not sure how others are discussing this like it’s a perfectly normal and acceptable lifestyle choice. It is not in the best interest of the children, even if they have financial resources. He’s acting like a disreputable dog breeder with a puppy mill. It’s horrible. It is impossible to provide good parenting with an unending supply chain of babies in different households. He’s only one person, he can’t possibly be around for all these children in the best way. He needs to stop.
How do you hire a helicopter to trail blue smoke and think that there won’t be a leak of your gender reveal?
I think the fake outrage about the leak is a cop-out to the backlash. They knew what they were doing.
I think this man needs a therapeutic intervention. He seems to be struggling with his mortality and using the spreading of his seed as a means to longevity, without thinking through the emotional consequences for the children involved. That isn’t to say that he is necessarily wrong to be having these children, but that he isn’t really thinking it through.
As far as the women, they are going in with eyes fairly open at this point. Maybe they’re alone and want children and consider a rolling stone a better option than a nameless, faceless sperm donor. In this case, at least they know that the children will be financially cared for, and that the father is interested (if not entirely available) in being in their lives.
At the end of the day, Zen is also Nick’s child. I don’t think he can be forbidden from speaking about his loss any more than the child’s mother. I believe that he is shocked and grieving. These adults need to really consider the potential pitfalls of the arrangements that they are entering into. How could he have been more present for his ailing child and how can he be present for any of his children who need him at any given time? What about the siblings and any possible feelings that they may have about losing Zen. How is he able to help them interpret this loss?
In a way, he might’ve gotten bashed either way.
He’s right to have mentioned that he feels guilty for celebrating, so soon after the passing of his child.
If it were a mother doing this she’d be torn to shreds. And I don’t understand why anyone would be on his case for stating he felt some confused feelings now— because— he does?
I guess when someone doesn’t like you they’ll criticize anything and for no particular reason, just to find a “justifiable” thing to hate on you for.
Oh and, shade to the woman who has a kid with a public figure, who goes about it publically, and then gets offended when he is public about their child too. Yeah hello.
I don’t think Cannon or Alyssa get to dictate to the other how either speaks about the loss of their son.
They both lost their child. The loss will be felt and dealt with in each their own ways.
The loss of a child is such a deep wound. There is no easy was to navigate such deep grief and Alyssa is going to hurt no matter what Nick says or doesn’t say. Expecting him to be silent or to have the perfect response is patently unfair to his grief process as well.
I’m not a fan of Cannon. But I don’t think anyone can argue he doesn’t love his kids.
Neither gets to dictate what the other says, no.
But human beings who had a child together and suffered, are suffering the loss of that child can be expected to consider the impact of their public words on the other grieving partner, and on any other children either one of them have. At least if they have any decency and aren’t lacking a sensitivity chip.
It seems like there are at least a couple of things going on:
-NC’s failure to think through how he’s going to announce a new child on the way on the heels of the death of his other child and
– NC having chosen a family-model with a high degree of difficulty in terms of balancing the needs, emotional well-being of all involved parties, not just financial needs. The multiple women, multiple existing children, multiple new babies in multiple households in the same 1-2 year period would be challenging to manage gracefully and effectively in the best of circumstances, with all the adults involved 100% on board and committed to doing what’s best for the kids and others in the relationships, and is obviously even harder with illness or death involved.
So much thought given to him and his choices in the comments. The reality, he is likely a raging narcissist procreating without any regard for the resulting children. See Duggar family as an example of raging narcissist procreating to disastrous results. Usually it takes much longer for disastrous results to become apparent. For this men, it all shook out much quicker. Sad for the resulting children for sure.
This psycho freak is basically starting a cult and why are people acting like it’s normal?????
Everybody sucks here. He sucks the women having children with him and having babies as ATM cards. Oh and please don’t @ me about these women. They know EXACTLY what they’re doing and they know who he is. I feel sorry for these kids. Some of them will come out of this nonsense just fine, but let’s be real some won’t.
Perhaps all of the adults involved should realize that they are all connected. Nick is grieving now so maybe a large, festive gender reveal party was not necessary. The new child on the way lost a sibling before he was even born. This is a profoundly sad time. The soon-to-be-mom should have given a thought for the mother who just lost her child – they are people with family ties now. There will be time for big celebrations later. I realize Nick created this situation and is not absolved of responsibility here, but all adults need to come together and think about the emotional well being of all the adults and children involved in their interconnected situation going forward.
I think he was living the high-life and the world came crashing down. Reality hit him in the face hard. I’m no great fan of his, but I feel like he’s doing the best he can to mitigate what he can now that his fantasy is over.
I hope he’s got a great financial advisor and that he can maintain gainful employment for at least the next 18 years. I cannot even imagine how expensive 8 children in multiple different homes would be to bring up in Los Angeles or New York or wherever he’s having these kids. I say this assuming these kids have a nice lifestyle and will go to private schools and all that.
This all just feels like a way too complicated way to live life. I suppose the brunt of the parenting is going to be on the moms.
I’m confused as to why the two events have to be separate or why this is an over share. I can see how this would be inner agony, being overjoyed about a new child and the devastation of suddenly losing another. I don’t even think he was comparing or conflating these events; they happened around the same time. I mean, he’s trash for lots of reasons, but not this one. I feel bad that he shared that vulnerability and everyone shit all over him for it. He had another child, he lost a child. Both are absolutely his story and he’s allowed to share it.
I totally agree with the comments about the women. Sorry but they are having babies in exchange for child support and social media clout. They are part of a harem and it weirds me out. They are trying to pretend it’s all good and everyone is a family but it comes across as fake as hell. Having a baby is hard and doing it without the unwavering support of a partner is way harder, even if you get cash tossed your way every month. Nick Cannon is gross and these women aren’t much better for willingly participating in this and bringing innocent lives into this mess for money. We all know if he was just some Walmart worker that I doubt he would have eight women lining up to be his baby mamas and pretending everything was hunky-dory. It’s all about the money and I have a feeling that’s gonna be running out pretty fast with this many mouths to feed.
Also if we want to talk about inequality in relationships, we all know Nick holds all the money and power. These women are aren’t equals in anyway. It’s a gross power imbalance and they need to please him to get that cash. Nothing about this is ok.
Thank you! People are on here pretending that pointing this out is what’s “gross,” as opposed to the actual situation. What these women are doing is not “empowered”. There is a huge power/financial imbalance between Nick and these women. They’re accepting the situation that he’s creating BECAUSE of the imbalance.
If you’re referring to what I wrote about your use of the word prostitute above, you are either deliberately misrepresenting my comment or you need to read it again. I was quite clear; what was gross was the way you used “prostitute” as a derogatory misogynistic dog-whistle/code word.
I don’t really see this situation or the people in it as being either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. We can make assumptions and talk sh*t based on those assumptions but honestly, none of us know the breakdown of the motivating factors for these women.
More and more women are choosing to have kids independent of having a partner and I would never deride anyone’s decision to be a single parent. Maybe these women really wanted a child and are fine with being (basically) single parents. They could just consider the financial support, the part-time dad, and the half-siblings bonuses. Who knows. I just don’t like making assumptions about women’s reproductive choices, ya know what I’m saying?
For people who are critical of the choice these women are making; if they really want a child, is this somehow worse than just getting a sperm donor? I get the sense that people think it is but I haven’t really seen anyone articulate why.
As for the ‘power imbalance’ related to money, I don’t get the sense that Nick is lording child support over the heads of these women, who again, made the choice to have a child with him. Again, we don’t know their arrangement. In the worst-case scenario, they could sue for child support (plus it would be a HUGE hit to NC’s public image to turn into a deadbeat dad) so they are not powerless. I also kind of feel like some of the ‘power imbalance’ comments are a mask for just general disapproval of how these people are conducting their lives.
Good point. There are still things people shouldn’t be called even if what they’re doing isn’t empowering.
I’m sorry, but nick cannon is gross. What a ho. Eight kids with six woman is ridiculous. What, cuz he’s a man, it’s OK to spread your seed like that?! Um… no.
At least I believe the children will have food on the table and possibly mothers who have a close relationship with them. There are so many children born every day worse off than these Cannon babies. Do I think his choice to have so many is ridiculous? Sure
Here is what I don’t understand; Nick Cannon said he was going to go on a “celibacy journey” because he felt “out of control” after his seventh child. Clearly, that did not happen, but why is it all or nothing? Why not just wear a condom or get a vasectomy? And, he is clearly sleeping with multiple women at the same time–what about the risk of STDs??