Nicki Minaj and Kenneth Petty are married
After months of speculation, Nicki Minaj and Kenneth Petty have officially tied the knot. It's the first marriage for the "Megatron" rapper.
Minaj announced the news Monday with a social media video showing matching “Mr.” and “Mrs.” mugs next to “bride” and “groom” baseball caps. In the caption, she wrote her new name — Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty — with the date, Oct. 21.
Messages of congratulations were posted in the comments from Christina Aguilera, La La Anthony, Winnie Harlow and NeNe Leakes, among others.
In June, Minaj revealed she and Petty, who has a troubled past, got their marriage license. "I think I have what I was striving for, just happiness," she explained. "It was so hard to get to a happy place. Now that I’m there I don’t want to compromise that for anyone or anything."
However, a license expires in 90 days and the pair didn't make it to the altar within that time period. Minaj told fans on the Aug. 12 episode of her Queen Radio show they got another license and will be married in "about 80 days." She explained they "filed for the marriage license and we still had to pick it up and I was traveling, by the time I came back, we had to renew it again."
"From that time, you have 90 days to get married. That was about a week ago, so now I have about 80 days," Minaj shared, saying they were opting for a low-key ceremony before a bigger celebration.
"I have to work on my album and I have a lot to focus on that I don’t want to do the big wedding now. We’ll do the big wedding later," Minaj added. "I’ll be married before my album comes out, but will have my wedding after the album comes out. Before the 90 days is over, yes, I will be married."
Rumors the pair — who grew up together — secretly got hitched went into overdrive in the days following the episode when Minaj changed her Twitter name to "Mrs. Petty." Now we know that she’ll be going with the hyphenated Mrs. Maraj-Petty — but will likely continue being known professionally as Nicki Minaj.
Minaj and Petty's rekindled romance was met with criticism when they went public last year. He is a registered level 2 sex offender who was convicted for the attempted rape of a teenage girl when he was also a teenager. ("He was 15, she was 16 … in a relationship," Minaj clapped back at the time. "But go awf, Internet. Y’all can’t run my life. Y’all can’t even run y’all own life. Thank you boo.") Petty was then convicted of first-degree manslaughter years later. The rapper has fiercely defended her and Petty's relationship.
"When a person is with a n***** that loved them before they had a dime in their pocket?" she asked on Queen Radio. "How do you not understand that? How do you not understand happiness vs clout? How f***ing dare you talk about lowering standards."
Minaj said she was happy Petty was not famous. "It’s the truth, money cannot buy me happiness and good sex," she declared.
The superstar previously dated Meek Mill and was linked to Nas before getting back together with Petty.
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