Nicki Minaj wanted to retire from music forever after having her son but changed her mind

October 01, 2024

The singer has opened up in a new interview about becoming a mom to her now three-year-old son and continuing her career. Nicki Minaj said she’d want to retire from music forever but she luckily changed her mind.

Nicki Minaj, who hasn’t publically named her son (only revealing that his nickname is Papa Bear), said she believed she wouldn’t want to make music once she started a family and instead would want to be a homemaker who “baked cookies.”

Nicki Minaj admits she thought she’d retire from music

Nicki told Vogue she believed when she started a family with her husband, Kenny Petty, who she married in 2019, her “desire” to continue her rapping career would go away.

“I think that deep down inside, I believed that once I had a family, I would just lose the desire to make music. I would always tell people, ‘Watch, when I have a child I’m going to cook every meal for him and bake cookies every day,'” the celebrity said.

“Maybe subconsciously, I hoped my focus would just be on being a mother, and I looked forward to that idea. It felt like a relief. But what happens is that you find out you have to work.”

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This followed a tweet in 2019 where the Super Bass hit-maker announced she was to retire from music. The news upset fans (known as Barbz), however, she didn’t leave the entertainment industry after being told a story about mom guilt.

The music star said a story of a woman who felt motherly guilt both when she was a homemaker and worker made her realize that she “might as well continue doing the only thing I know how to freaking do, which is make music.”

Nicki added after becoming a mother in September 2020 she had “anxiety” about being a parent.

The singer said: “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!”

She has opened up about having parenthood anxiety before

Nicki previously told E! News when on tour, she would “struggle” with being away from her toddler.

The 41-year-old admitted: “I’m very attached to my son. I remember being in the UK and just bawling. And when I try to FaceTime him, I get more sad. So, I try to hold out on FaceTiming him because to then put the phone down is so difficult.

“I think moms feel like they have to be perfect. I hate that I have more anxiety now because you’re like, ‘What if the one time I leave my child, I get that phone call?'”

Nicki wants more children

Despite the anxiety and guilt she has felt, the celebrity said having siblings herself makes her want her three-year-old to also have brothers and sisters.

“I do want to have more,” she said.

“Not at this moment, but I don’t want to deprive my son of siblings. Having siblings, it causes you to have problem management skills early on in life. I would feel guilty if I didn’t give Papa Bear another sibling or two.”

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