Cannon first became a parent in 2011, when he had twins Monroe and Moroccan, now 11, with his then-wife, Mariah Carey. But after the couple's divorce was finalized in 2016, Cannon quickly began having more children.

Along with his twins with Carey and his new baby with Scott, the entertainment mogul is now the father to Golden Sagon, 5, Powerful Queen, 2, and Rise Messiah, 4 months, with Brittany Bell; twins Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir, 18 months, and Beautiful Zeppelin, 1 month, the radio personality Abby De La Rosa; Legendary Love, 6 months, with Bre Tiesi; and Onyx Ice Cole, 3 months, with LaNisha Cole.

Halo Marie Cannon is the actor, musician, and television host's second child with the model Alyssa Scott; the couple lost their 5-month-old son, Zen, to a brain tumor in December 2021.

It's been a whirlwind year for Cannon, who had three other children, Legendary Love, Onyx Ice Cole, and Beautiful Zeppelin, in June, September, and November, respectively. He now shares children with six women.

Shows like "19 Kids and Counting" — which follows Jim and Michelle Duggar, devout Baptists whose faith dictates that they avoid birth control — have drawn attention to the question of how many kids is too many. But unlike the Duggars, Cannon's motives — as well as those of his children's mothers, none of whom appears to be in a committed relationship with Cannon — remain unclear.

Can Cannon be an effective father to so many children across so many different households? The answer, some experts said, depends on how one defines the term "effective."

"Even within one relationship, within one couple, children themselves can have different needs, and so parenting them is going to look different for each child," said Dr. Paula Powe, a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist and assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. "Doing it 12 different times effectively is going to be a very big challenge."

"He's a celebrity that's doing it, and he's in the public eye," said the clinical psychologist Adolph Brown, the cohost of ABC's parenting show "The Parent Test." "In the circles that I'm in, people are curious to know what's driving him."