“After a flurry of speculation, she announced Wednesday that she is expecting her fourth child, who will be her first by her NFL boyfriend Stefon Diggs.”, — write: www.dailymail.co.uk
After a flurry of speculation, she announced Wednesday that she is expecting her fourth child, who will be her first by her NFL boyfriend Stefon Diggs.
She shares her three older children – Kulture, seven, Wave, three, and Blossom, 11 months – with her estranged husband Offset, a fellow rapper with whom she has yet to finalize her bitter and protracted divorce.
One day after her latest pregnancy reveal, it emerged that Stefon, who started dating Cardi last October, was slapped with a paternity suit in December by an Instagram model who was pregnant at the time with a baby she claims is his.
Now in the middle of the publicity firestorm, and weeks after she was cleared in her viral civil assault trial, Cardi has put out her second studio album Am I the Drama?.
The 32-year-old celebrated the milestone with a surprise Apple pop-up performance and a release party at The Highlight Room in New York.
Her skintight black lace bodysuit was entirely transparent and was draped with strings of pearls that brought back memories of a Las Vegas showgirl.
While leaving her party, Cardi struck a pose to show off her derriere, which she infamously had augmented with implants in a disastrous illegal operation in a basement during her pre-fame career as a New York stripper.
Stefon cut a dashing figure at Cardi’s fete in a fitted moss-green t-shirt, a denim jacket and beige jeans, garnished with jewelry including a wallet chain.
As she emerged from the venue, Cardi was presented with a gigantic bouquet of Venus et Fleur roses courtesy of her football star boyfriend.
Am I the Drama? is the first album she has released since her 2018 debut Invasion of Privacy, which she also put out while heavily pregnant.
The new record includes tracks that first dropped years ago, including her 2020 smash hit duet WAP with Megan Thee Stallion and her 2021 single Up.
Featured artists on Am I the Drama? include Selena Gomez, Lizzo, Janet Jackson, Kehlani, Tyla, Cash Cobain, Summer Walker and Lourdiz.
Cardi is due in February before the kickoff of her Little Miss Drama tour, which she reassured fans Thursday is still slated to start on February 11.
‘I want this s*** real f***in’ bad. I want this s*** like I’m in the third floor in the Bronx and I need to get the f*** on out. That’s how bad I want it,’ she said in an Instagram video. ‘Nothing and anybody is stopping me.’
She insisted: ‘After this album run, it’s straight to exercising. It’s straight to dance classes – when the baby come out, my body will be loose – and straight rehearsals with all my dancers. I’m not playin’. I owe this to myself and I owe this to my fans.’
Stefon leapt into the comments of her post and gushed that he was ‘Proud of you for staying focused,’ adding a heart emoji for good measure.
It had emerged that day that an Instagram model called Aileen Lopera, who goes by Lord Gisselle on social media, filed a paternity suit against him last December.
She was pregnant at the time with a baby who was eventually born on April 2, and whom she gave the name Charliee Harper Diggs-Lopera.
Stefon responded to her suit this July claiming to be unsure whether he fathered the baby – although he added that if he did, he wants joint legal and physical custody, in contrast to Aileen, who demanded sole custody with Stefon only permitted visitation.
Meanwhile an old video has resurfaced showing Stefon’s teammates saying they would not want him dating their sisters, with one calling him ‘outrageous’ and another describing him as ‘not a guy that you want to bring home to your parents.’
At the start of this month, Cardi was cleared in her $24 million civil assault trial, in which she was accused of physically attacking a female security guard who allegedly followed her and filmed her at a doctor’s office in 2018.
The plaintiff claimed the rapper struck her, spat on her and even slashed her with her fingernail in the encounter, which took place when Cardi was pregnant with Kulture.
During a courthouse press conference on the day of closing arguments, Cardi exploded and threw a pen at a journalist who asked about her new pregnancy rumors, which she at that point had yet to publicly confirm.
Later that day, she was cleared – the culmination of a rollicking trial in which she hit the headlines for making sardonic faces, mocking the plaintiff, modeling extravagant outfits and wearing different color wigs from one court date to the next.
Cashing in on the fracas, Cardi released a limited ‘courtroom edition’ of Am I the Drama? with a selection of new covers made up of photos showing her at the trial.