Nicki Minaj Says Marriage Got “Testy” After Having Son

Nicki Minaj is opening up about her marriage to Kenneth Petty and the struggles they’ve faced within their marriage.

The “Moment For Life” rapper graced the cover of Vogue and gave the outlet one of her most personal interviews in years. Minaj rarely shares the inner dealings of her relationship with Petty, but when speaking to Vogue, she expounded on why she chose to be with him years after they met as teenagers.

“Because I’ve known my husband for so long, there’s an ease we have with each other. We make each other laugh. We’re silly. And we’re always reminiscing about some old story. 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? And that, combined with pregnancy, would probably have made me crazy,” she explained.

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Petty and Minaj began dating in 2018 and tied the knot just one year later. In 2020, they welcomed their son, whom she only refers to as Papa Bear. However, even though they’ve often displayed a united front for the cameras, Minaj admitted that things got rocky after they welcomed their son.

“I’m not going to lie, things got testy between us. Because of our history, I think we knew we’d get past it. But there’s no such thing as confidence in parenthood,” Minaj told the outlet without speaking on the details of their issues.

The 40-year-old also touched on motherhood, and it changed the way she recorded music, making it difficult for her to rap sexual lyrics.

“Some of the songs started off being written about four years ago; there were songs … I couldn’t record sexually explicit songs while I was pregnant, so I ended up just getting turned off for a very long time, and I had writer’s block for a while, even after I had the baby,” she recalled.

Thankfully, that seems to be behind her as she prepares to release her highly anticipated “Pink Friday 2” on December 8th, 2023.