Father of 12 Nick Cannon is opening up about the “double standard” he has for his 15-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe when it comes to dating.
“My son [Moroccan] has been dating, and I’ve allowed it, I encouraged it,” the America’s Got Talent and The Masked Singer host, 45, said while appearing on the Saturday, May 2, episode of “The TMZ Podcast.”
When the podcast host told the comedian they hope “you’ve been allowing it and encouraging that” for his daughter Monroe, too, Cannon abruptly responded, “No, absolutely not.”
“First of all, it’s absolutely a double standard,” he continued. “And I know I get in trouble a lot ‘cause I say things with my chest. But there is a difference when parenting a son and then when parenting a daughter.”
The comedian and actor added, “I am more protective of my daughter because there [are] things out there that I have to protect my daughter from. Like, as we know, there are a certain type of individuals that you want to keep your daughter away from.”
Cannon shares Moroccan and Monroe with ex-wife Mariah Carey. The Wild n’ Out star also shares sons Golden Saigon and Rise Messiah and daughter Powerful Queen with Brittany Bell; twin sons Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir and daughter Beautiful Zeppelin with Abby De La Rosa; son Legendary Love with Bre Tiesi; daughter Onyx Ice Cole with LaNisha Cole; and daughter Halo Marie with Alyssa Scott. He and Scott are also parents to son Zen, who died in December 2021 of a brain tumor.
“If somebody puts their hands on my daughter, I’m going to jail,” Cannon continued on Saturday. “If some man puts his hands on my daughter, it’s my worst nightmare because I am going to jail forever.”
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During a September 15, 2025, interview on “The Breakfast Club,” Cannon — who has received plenty of criticism for having a dozen children with multiple women — described his fatherhood as a “trauma” response to his breakup with Carey, 57.
“I didn’t get a chance to slow down until I got in therapy,” Cannon said at the time. “But I was just like, ‘Look, I just got to keep making money. I got to stay hot. I got to stay funny.’ And everything else figured itself out. And I just didn’t do the work. So then I looked up with 12 kids later. Wow, I could have did things very differently.”
He added, “But I stand firm on all of my decisions because I love all my kids. I love my family infrastructure. But I know it all started from a place of pain and not really healing properly.”
