Nicki Minaj Had Abortion As Teen: ‘I Had Nothing To Offer A Child,’ Rapper Reveals
Nicki Minaj reveals that she had an abortion as a teenager, in a new interview with Rolling Stone Magazine that hits newsstands this week. And while the “Anaconda” rapper says that the decision to terminate her her teenage pregnancy has “haunted” her, she remains pro-choice and says the abortion was the right decision for her at the time.
Minaj, whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj, attended the prestigious LaGuardia High School in Queens, New York — a school which specializes in music and performing arts — and while still a teenage student there, she says in the interview, she fell in love with an older man, who she still calls her “first love.”
But getting pregnant was not what she wanted from the relationship, so when she found herself with child by her older boyfriend, she was faced with a difficult decision.
“I thought I was going to die. I was a teenager. It was the hardest thing I’d ever gone through,” she told Rolling Stone, in the interview which the magazine has not posted in full on line.
The 32-year-old Minaj tells the venerable music bible that aborting her first and, so far, only child has “haunted me all my life.”
But even so, she says, she stands by her decision to go ahead with the abortion as the correct one.
“It’d be contradictory if I said I wasn’t pro-choice,” she said in the interview. “I wasn’t ready. I didn’t have anything to offer a child.”
She said that she has decided to discuss the intimate details of her personal life in public interviews for the first time, partly because her new album, The Pinkprint, contains lyrics that relate closely to her personal experiences. Her song “All Things Go” on the new Nicki Minaj album is her attempt to come to terms with her teenage abortion.
“I struggled with ‘Do I express these feelings?'” she tells Rolling Stone. “And I decided there’s no reason for me to hide. I’m a vulnerable woman, and I’m proud of that.”
At the same time, Minaj remains unapologetic about the frank sexual content of songs such as her recent hit “Anaconda,” as well as the highly sexualized image that she chooses to project in photo shoots and music videos.
“With a video like ‘Anaconda,’ I’m a grown-a** f******g woman!” she said, explaining why she chose to make a video that focuses largely on her prominent backside. “I stand for girls wanting to be sexy and dance, but also having a strong sense of themselves. If you got a big ol’ butt? Shake it! Who cares? That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be graduating from college.”
Whether the admission of her teenage abortion by Nicki Minaj, and her unapologetic stance about her decision, will produce a backlash from certain segments of the public remains to be seen.
