Wave Set Cephus was captured under a photo of Cardi B and Offset’s son. The 7-month-old was finally featured on his parents’ social media the day they revealed their new cover on Essence.
Cardi B, 29, and Offset, 30, took Essence for a walk in their blended lives as parents to their 3-year-old daughter Kulture and 7-month-old son Wave Set Cephus, daughter Kalea, 7, and sons Jordan, 12, and Kody, also 7.
According to the magazine, Cardi didn’t want to leave a child out. She requested to talk to the editorial and creative team, woman to woman, about the possibility of including her stepchildren in their photo shoot.
While she doesn’t want to disturb the relationships she has with the other mothers of Offset’s children, more than anything, she doesn’t want any of his kids to feel left out.
“After we got married, that’s when I first met his kids,” Cardi says during our sit-down interview. “I always wanted them to love me, and they really do. They tell me that. I feel it, and
I hope that we always have a great relationship.”
Cardi and Offset knew about the realities of blending families long before they had to navigate those waters themselves. “I have two brothers, and we have three different dads,” Offset says. “I never heard of a half-brother—those are my brothers.”
Cardi also revealed that her and Hennessy have more siblings. She has an additional six siblings from her father’s previous relationship. That family dynamic shaped Cardi’s desire for all of Offset’s kids to forge a close bond. The graciousness of that attitude isn’t lost on the father of five.
“It’s a blessing to be able to have them all together, and to have a wife who’s open and treats them as if they’re her kids,” he says. “It could be an issue, but I don’t have to go through that, and that’s beautiful.”
Cardi (née Belcalis Almánzar) and Offset (née Kiari Cephus) met for the first time in January of 2017. The couple had a private marriage. After Cardi B revealed her pregnancy, she received backlash from the public. It was in that moment that she publicized her 7-month marriage.
She spoke about protecting her heart. “It would be embarrassing to go on a date with a guy, and my career is just starting off, and then the next day he’s not into me anymore. I would’ve been crushed.”
The wife of Offset also admitted that pregnancy frightened as she grew in the industry.
“I was really nervous because everybody around me was nervous,” she says. “People who work in the industry said that nothing like this had really happened before, when somebody was at the height of their career and they got pregnant.”
Cardi leaned on her new husband during that time of uncertainty. “He kept telling me, ‘Trust me. It’s going to be alright. You’re huge. Everybody loves you. People are going to understand.’ And I just kept telling myself, I have to put out my album before I get big and I can’t do these music videos. I can’t let everybody in the industry that believes in me down.”
Offset understood Cardi’s fears, as he had his own when he first became a father at the age of 17. “I was scared because I was a kid,” he recalls. “I was still living with my mama.”
She also stated that she had a sense of comfort seeing how Offset fathered his older children.
The couple went through their ups and downs in the public as well.
Speaking on their separation after the birth of their daughter she said, “I feel like our first year, even though we were in love with each other, we had a lot of lust,” Cardi says. “We didn’t really know each other like that, because he was doing four shows a week. I was doing four shows a week. We would see each other about three or four times a month.”
A little more than a year later, they reconciled; and though the couple’s professional obligations haven’t necessarily slowed down—Offset is preparing to release his second solo studio album this summer, and Cardi is working on new music while filming her Meta original series Cardi Tries—things are much better. As Offset says, “We understand our job.”
By the time the couple were having their youngest son, Wave Set Cephus, they knew their assignments as celebrity parents.
This time around, it isn’t just industry pressure they’re up against. It’s Internet bullies—like those who recently led Cardi to make Wave Set Cephus older sister Kulture’s Instagram page, which has more than 2 million followers, private.
“We went through a lot of sad things when it comes to Kulture—terrible behavior that not even the older kids have ever been through,” Cardi reveals. “So many people will post mean, disgusting things, just to get a reaction from us.” It was for that reason the couple waited to show Wave to the world. Cardi admits: “We want to protect our feelings, because we get very, very angry and upset.”
Business Life
The couple have also learned how to collaborate in protecting their assets.
“From the beginning, I remember he used to ask to see my contracts, and I would be like, ‘Boy, I don’t know you like that,’” Cardi says. “But when I started letting him in on more things, I started seeing things differently. People have cut me short a lot, and ever since I have involved him in my business, I’ve been doing so much better. Sometimes people will make you feel you deserve less than what you’re worth.”
Since Offset was experienced with new artist experience in the industry, he was able to help guide his wife. “I just want to make sure the family’s straight. We have children together. We have family behind us. They’re depending on us. The industry, it’s a little slick. You’ve got to have your eyes open—and I’ve been in it a little longer, so I know how things can be. I just want to make sure the business is correct.”
In all, the couple summed up how their relationship has grown and lasted.
“It’s a safe house,” Offset sums up. That security is magnified by being part of a large family. During summer and Christmas holidays, the kids are with him and his wife under one roof. Cardi describes their time together as “lit,” saying, “When they leave, it is like a big sadness.”
Reflecting on the beauty of her blended family, she adds, “I feel like sometimes people go into a relationship with a man or a woman who has kids with negativity—and I feel like people should embrace it, and love it. I love our family, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
