Lil Wayne is opening up about why he became a father as a teenager.
On the latest episode of the Friends Keep Secrets podcast, the 43-year-old rapper recalled returning home after a six-month stretch on the road and finding his mother, Jacida Carter, struggling with Wayne's absence due to his touring schedule following the death of her husband.
"I was 14,” Wayne said about having his first child near the seven-minute mark of the interview.
“Were you nervous?” asked co-host Benny Blanco.
“No, because my mom asked,” Wayne answered. “My mom asked for my kid. My dad had just got murdered that year. The same year I blew up … I was a local rapper forever. So we would go on tour back then. Before that, [it] would be me going on weekend shows and coming back home for the week and going to school.”
He continued, “We got the Universal [Music Group] deal and I was like, ‘Uh, we have a tour coming up.’ And when I went on that tour, we was on the road for like six months. When I came home, she was like, ‘Is this what you're about to be doing? … You were gone for too long. I’m lonely. My husband’s gone.’ So she was like, ‘Listen, let's have a sit down. Me, you, and Toya.’”
His stepfather, Reginald "Rabbit" McDonald, who Wayne has long considered his real father, was shot and killed on March 7, 1997, per Lil Wayne HQ.
According to People, Wayne and then-girlfriend Antonia "Toya" Johnson welcomed Reginae Carter on November 29, 1998. At the time of her birth, Wayne was 16 years old. The outlet reports that Wayne and Johnson tied the knot in 2004 but called it quits two years later.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Wayne talked about aliens and his unhealthy diet despite having a personal chef.
