Cardi B covers the March issue of Harper’s Bazaar. The interview clearly happened in the brief interlude after Cardi’s breakup with Offset and before they got back together. What’s interesting is that in that interlude, she sounds pretty over his whole thing, and even now that they’re sort of back together, I seriously doubt that they’re, like, second-honeymooning. Cardi is a busy woman with a lot of different things going on, and Offset is only one small slice of the drama that is her life. You can read the full Bazaar piece here. Some highlights:
All the changes in her life: “I feel like my life is a fairy tale and I’m a princess—rags to riches, people trying to sabotage,” she says. But she also complains fervently about being over the fairy-tale life and wanting peace and quiet. “Before, I cared about everything—relationship, gossip. Now I don’t feel like I have the time to please people. I don’t care about anything anymore—just my career and my kid.”
She admires the Duchess of Sussex: As much as she may imagine herself as a princess, she talks about admiring Meghan Markle for becoming a real one. “She must just be like, ‘Who am I?’” Cardi says, referring to Markle’s having to live by the royal family’s rules.
No one influenced her to leave Offset: “No, I decided on my own. Nobody makes my decisions about my life but me.” Before they broke up, Offset begged Cardi to see a therapist. “I didn’t want to go to marriage counseling. He suggested it, but it’s like, ‘I don’t want to go.’ There’s no counselor or nothing that could make me change my mind.”
She doesn’t want to wade back into the dating pool though: “I have a kid, and I’m also famous. So I can’t just sleep with anybody. People talk. You know, if I date somebody in the industry, that’s another person in the industry. If I date somebody who is not in the industry, he might not understand my lifestyle.” Since the breakup, she’s been getting a ton of messages from guys but ignoring them. “It’s like, ‘Bro, why would you want to holler at me right away? You’re weird.’ If you think Imma automatically hop onto you after a marriage, that just means you think I’m a sleaze. And I’m not. I have a kid—I have to show an example… just because I’m out there and very sexual doesn’t mean that I have to be whorish. I like to have sex. That doesn’t mean I have to have it with everybody. Not that I judge women who want to have sex with the world.”
She isn’t breastfeeding Kulture (nicknamed KK): “It was too hard,” she explains. In fact, she spent most of the time after the baby was born in a haze of postpartum depression. “I thought I was going to avoid it. When I gave birth, the doctor told me about postpartum, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m doing good right now, I don’t think that’s going to happen.’ But out of nowhere, the world was heavy on my shoulders.”
Her body still feels different after giving birth: “For some reason, I still don’t feel like my body’s the same. I feel like I don’t have my balance right yet. When it comes to heels, I’m not as good at walking anymore. I feel like I’m holding a weight on me. I don’t know why because I’m skinnier than I’ve ever been. But there’s an energy I haven’t gotten back yet that I had before I was pregnant. It’s just the weirdest thing.”
Part of me thinks that Cardi’s postpartum issues, from her lack of energy to her balance to her ability to keep on weight, are all probably normal things for the first postpartum year. But I’d also like to see her go to some doctors and specialists who might be able to answer some of her questions and run some tests just to double-check. I also wouldn’t be surprised if she’s still experiencing some postpartum depression, and that’s contributing to her physical issues.
As for what she says about sex and all… I actually think she found a good balance? She doesn’t want to go out there and bang every guy who texts her, but she also doesn’t judge women who do.
Photos courtesy of Getty, cover courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar.
Um, I think words like “whorish” count as judging. Cardi is entertaining, but she really does seem like an abusive person to be around if she doesn’t think you’re on her level.
I wish everybody was as sex-positive and non-judgemental. Good for her.
I’m ok with her comments, although I don’t like the word whorish. (I also don’t care for skank, as I may have strongly told my 66 year old father yesterday.)
But what I really want to talk about is the dress in the last photo. OMG. Cardi has an amazing ability to wear these gorgeous couture gowns and not look like they are wearing her. She just looks like, “Oh, hey, it’s Tuesday, time to look aaaahmaaaazing again.” Incredibly comfortable and confident. The floral-ETA it wasn’t floral, it was peacock feathers from Michael Costello- gown she wore in Paris last year was the same thing to me.
:)Good for you for standing up to him. It’s not always the easiest thing to stand up to someone that old when they say something misogynistic, partially because you’re working against cultural expectations about respecting one’s problematic elders and a culture that normalizes dehumanization of the sexual woman at the same time.
I don’t like the fact that she used that word either- if she actually wanted to hook up with a few people right after ending this marriage, it still wouldn’t make other people justified in calling her that. But it does seem less like telling strangers what to do, and more like she’s talking about assumptions that men (and others) automatically make about her just because of the way she dresses and the fact that she brings sexuality into her art.
The photos of her are awkward. It. Looks like they caught her in a half smile.
I commend her about speaking about PPD. I’d love to hear more about her experience with it. I had PPD after my second child. I most likely had undiagnosed depression during the second pregnancy too when I look back. I should also add that my first kid was diagnosed with a serious health issue while I was pregnant with my second which most likely contributed to any depressive symptoms I had pre and post birth. I just hope that her tumultuous relationship with Offset doesn’t contribute in any way to depression etc.
Like Cardi, when the baby came I was elated! And then my world came crashing just after. I’ve obviously sought help which has helped me get through it but I’m still suffering from it to date.
I hope she surrounds herself with good people and trusting caregivers. That has been a lifesaver for me and made my load a lot easier.
I hope you and your kiddo are doing ok 🙂
I didn’t have PPD but my anxiety disorder definitely ramped up the first month post partum. Therapy hasn’t done much for me, but I agree that having a good support system is crucial.
I love her Harper’s Bazaar cover! Go Cardi!
It’s not “for some reason” that your body feels different – it’s because pregnancy changes your body. You don’t just gain weight and then lose it and all is good. Your posture and alignment change, you lose most of your core strength, all your insides get squished to make room for the baby, your joints are bendy because of all the relaxin.
Of course she doesn’t feel back to rights yet. Our culture is obnoxiously deficient in teaching women the realities of what childbirth does to their bodies, even beyond the physical. Think about what your body went through to have that child – it literally restructured itself to be a reproductive device for nine months and then some. It nursed a living being to life and everything that entails: hormones changes, vascularization, biochemical shifts, organ compression and rearrangement, bone remodeling (increased osteoclast activity, widening of the pelvic, etc.), alterations in calorie metabolism, and so on. We don’t treat childbirth with respect in America for the physical trauma that it can be because it’s ~natural~, but it permanently alter your body. I wouldn’t be surprised if her balance is off because it’s entirely possible her hips widened. Her musculature probably needs restrengthened. Just crazy to me how we pretend this is something women can just brush off.
+1000! Now it’s “How fast I bounced back, etc. etc..” magazine covers. Totally unrealistic. I couldn’t walk in heels either post partum. I did fit in my pre-pregnancy jeans 8 weeks later, but damn did my bits not look the same way! Just gotta roll (literally) with it.
I love this comment and your knowledge. It’s all very very true and what your described doesn’t get enough attention or respect of what happens to women after they give birth.
Let the church say AMEN!
I like her sex-positive comments (I think she says whorish but actually makes it clear that she thinks it’s a-ok for women to have as much sex as they want). It took me a long time to get comfortable with owning my enjoyment and pleasure (religious upbringing in the deep South).
I also liked that she is talking about PPD. I didn’t really have it with my first so getting it this second time around was a shock. I didn’t even understand what I was feeling. Especially since with my first I was in a miserable situation in my marriage (now ex husband) and professionally, and this time around I’m incredibly happy and in a loving marriage and professionally successful. I guess I just thought it should be easier?
My husband finally convinced me at around 6 months to talk to my OBGYN and I’m doing much better now.
I think PPD can hit women in so many different ways–it’s not just the stereotypical fears about harming yourself or your baby. For me it was overwhelming waves of guilt and sadness at struggling to breastfeed and going back to work. Every tiny thing felt insurmountable. I cried constantly over the smallest things.
I don’t like that shade of blonde on her on the cover, especially as a bob. But I liked the rest of the photos.