Nicki Minaj reveals she's pregnant
Nicki Minaj attends the Marc Jacobs Fall 2020 runway show during New York Fashion Week in New York City, on Feb. 12, 2020. Credit: Getty Images for Marc Jacobs / Jamie McCarthy
Hip-hop star Nicki Minaj is pregnant.
The hitmaker, 37, who is married to former childhood sweetheart Kenneth "Zoo" Petty, posted four separate pregnancy portraits on Instagram Monday. "#Preggers," she announced in the first, followed by a yellow-heart emoji.
She wears a different outfit in two of three professionally shot photos. In the first, she kneels on a pink couch against a white background wearing a bikini top covered in decorative patches, a side-tie bikini bottom, and a bright yellow wig. In the second, the Trinidad and Tobago-born rapper, raised primarily in Queens, stands in a white limbo with teal blue hair piled into a high bun with a yellow bow, and wears a ruffled bikini ensemble with heavy fringing, plus over-the-knee, lace-topped white stockings. . The third image, a variation on the first, shows her lounging on the pink sofa alongside the caption, "Love. Marriage. Baby carriage. Overflowing with excitement & gratitude. Thank you all for the well wishes." She includes another yellow-heart emoji. In all the photos she wears platform Lucite heels decorated with crystals
In the fourth image, which Minaj credits to celebrity photographer David LaChapelle, the music star wears a gauzy, white outfit with its center cut out to reveal her pregnant figure. She wears a crystal beaded, floor-length veil against a round, painted pastel background situated amid lush vegetation. "And finally, the Virgin Mary," she writes alongside the photo.
Minaj announced in October that she and Petty, who is in his early 40s, had married, many months after she had begun referring casually to him as her husband.
"Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty 10•21•19," the "Barbie Dreams" singer, born Onika Tanya Maraj, posted on Instagram on Oct. 21, along with emoji of a bride, a groom, a tearful smiley face, hands clasped in prayer, and a pink bow. Accompanying the message was a silent video of mugs reading "Mrs." and "Mr.," a white baseball cap reading "Bride" and a black baseball cap reading "Groom."
The relationship had sparked unease among fans and some in the music industry when Minaj and Petty began dating in 2018 and his criminal record became public. New York State sex-offender records show that in April 1995, while still a minor teen, Petty was convicted of the attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl the previous September. After serving time, he remains a Level 2 registered sex offender in New York State.
Additionally, court documents obtained by TheBlast.com show that he pleaded guilty in Queens in March 2006 to a manslaughter charge for fatally shooting a man named Lamont Robinson on April 27, 2002. He served seven years in prison and was released in May 2013.
