Nicki Minaj ignited a firestorm of speculation regarding the state of her marriage on Monday.
The 41-year-old Super Bass singer — who wed high school sweetheart Kenneth Petty in 2019 — kicked off the online drama by taking to her X to share the cryptic tweet ‘yes single.’
Without additional details, the move led fans to question whether the rapper is addressing her relationship status or hinting at new music.
‘So are we getting a new single or are you single,’ one fan asked, as another shared: ‘We love you no matter what, idc if you’re single or dropping a new single.’
Yet another congratulated Nicki on an apparent self-promotion tactic, posting, ‘Dear rap girlies , this is how you pull a PR stunt. literally two words and she ate.’
The enigmatic post comes after her husband Kenneth petitioned a court to approve him leaving the U.S. in April, as he remains on probation for his 2021 conviction of failing to register as a sex offender.
Petty, 46, stated in court documents reviewed by TMZ that it’s crucial for him to join Nicki on her European Pink Friday 2 tour to accompany their three-year-old son.
The probation officer overseeing Petty’s case – stemming initially from his first-degree attempted rape conviction in April 1995 – ‘hasn’t raised any objections to his travel request,’ the outlet reported, citing court docs.
Petty made headlines last September when he received a 120-day house arrest sentence for violating probation after posting social media clips containing aggressive messages towards Migos rapper Offset.
In a December 2023 Vogue profile, the Super Bass artist explained the dynamics of her relationship with Petty, who she’s known since high school.
‘Because I’ve known my husband for so long, there’s an ease we have with each other,’ Minaj said of Petty. ‘We make each other laugh. We’re silly. And we’re always reminiscing about some old story.
‘If it was a guy that I met as Nicki Minaj, I think I’d feel like they liked me because I’m Nicki Minaj, and what if I don’t look like Nicki Minaj every day? And that, combined with pregnancy, would probably have made me crazy.’
In the interview, she said of staring a family with Petty, ‘I think that deep down inside, I believed that once I had a family, I would just lose the desire to make music.
‘I would always tell people, “Watch, when I have a child I’m going to cook every meal for him and bake cookies every day.” Maybe subconsciously I hoped my focus would just be on being a mother, and I looked forward to that idea. It felt like a relief. But what happens is that you find out you have to work.’
Minaj said she and Petty ventured through the infant years of their son – who they have not publicly named – with little help from others, which led to things getting ‘testy between’ them.
‘Because of our history, I think we knew we’d get past it,’ Minaj said. ‘But there’s no such thing as confidence in parenthood.
‘I kind of wish that someone had told me – although I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to understand it – that there’s a level of anxiety, and you think it’s going to go away, but in fact it gets scarier. So often you think: I don’t know how to do this!’
Meanwhile, Nicki has been dealing with the fallout after she was arrested on suspicion of possessing soft drugs in the Netherlands.
While live-streaming the arrest, the rapper claimed that airport security tried to get her to make a ‘statement with no lawyer present’ after finding ‘pre-rolls’ in ‘bags that they were not authorized to take.’
A police spokesperson later confirmed that a 41-year-old woman had been arrested for ‘possession of soft drugs.’
Nicki has since rescheduled her concert in Manchester after missing the show while still in custody in Amsterdam.
