Oh, baby! Nicki Minaj showed off her newborn three weeks after giving birth to her first child with husband Kenneth Petty.
“Happy anniversary, my love,” the Grammy nominee, 37, captioned an Instagram photo of the infant’s foot.
Minaj and Petty, 42, exchanged vows in Los Angeles in October 2019 after one year of dating. The pair reconnected in 2018 after previously exploring a relationship while in high school. Less than one year into their marriage, Minaj debuted her growing baby bump on Instagram.
“#Preggers,” she captioned the glowing photo in July. “Love. Marriage. Baby carriage. Overflowing with excitement & gratitude. Thank you all for the well wishes.”
Two weeks after her little one’s arrival, Minaj revealed his sex in an Instagram slideshow. “Thank you to Queen B[eyoncé], Kim [Kardashian] & Kanye [West], Riccardo Tisci, Winnie [Harlow], Karol [G] & everyone who sent well wishes during this time,” she captioned photos of congratulatory cards in October. “It meant the world to me. I am so grateful & in love with my son. Madly in love. My favorite liddo [sic] boy in the whole wide world.”
The “Anaconda” rapper opened up about the possibility of becoming a parent in 2014, telling Complex at the time that she had some reservations about balancing her work life with her life at home.
“[My biggest fear] is that I’ll become so consumed with work that I’ll forget to live my personal life to the fullest. If I’m done with my fifth album and I don’t have a child by then, no matter how much money I have, I would be disappointed, as a woman, because I feel like I was put here to be a mother,” she told the outlet. “I definitely will be married before I have my baby. I want to make sure I do it in that order. I’ve always felt like that since I was young; my mother always put that in my head.”
The American Music Award winner continued: “I wonder if I’m going to be one of those women who balances my child with a career. I always said, ‘When I have my baby, it’s going to be all about my baby.’ I don’t want the child feeling like they don’t have all of my attention, so I always said, ‘I’m going to take a little break.’ But we’ll see.”
Before she wed Petty, Minaj had high hopes for their future together. Early in their relationship, an insider told Us Weekly exclusively that the “Starships” artist was “absolutely head over heels in love” — and already had babies on the brain.
“She fell hard and fast. She hasn’t smiled this much in a long time,” the source added in December 2018. “Nicki has always wanted to become a mother, and that’s something she and Kenny have discussed. She really believes that he has changed since his troublesome days, but some of her friends are still a bit wary.”
Petty was charged with first-degree attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl in 1995, forcing him to register as a sex offender. He served four years in prison before a second sentencing in 2006 after he pleaded guilty to a first-degree manslaughter charge. Two months before Minaj gave birth, Petty requested to be present for the big event if it happened outside of his curfew hours, according to documents obtained by TMZ.
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