Nicki Minaj has admitted that “things got testy” after she and her husband Kenneth Petty, welcomed their first child.
The “Super Bass” rapper has opened up about the “level of anxiety” that she experienced after welcoming her son, whom she refers to as Papa Bear, with her husband, Kenneth.
“I’m not going to lie, things got testy between us,” Nicki Minaj recalled of her marriage after her son, who is now three years old, was born. “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,” the 40-year-old continued. “So often you think: I don’t know how to do this!”
Elsewhere in the interview, Nicki Minaj shared details about her marriage to Kenneth, whom she first met when she was in high school.
“Because I’ve known my husband for so long, there’s an ease we have with each other,” the artist shared. “We make each other laugh. We’re silly. And we’re always reminiscing about some old story.”
Nicki, born Onika Mara, and Kenneth, 45, both attended LaGuardia High School in New York City, where they briefly dated. After losing contact, the pair reconnected in 2018 and tied the knot the following year.
They welcomed their son in September 2020.
“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?” the Starships rapper continued. “And that, combined with pregnancy, would probably have made me crazy.”
