Cardi B opens up about postpartum depression: 'The world was heavy on my shoulders'

Cardi B is known for keeping it real, and she embraces that same attitude for a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar. The “Money” rapper is the magazine’s cover star, and in the profile she opens up about experiencing postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter, Kulture Kiari, now 7 months old.

“I thought I was going to avoid it,” Cardi said. “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.”

Cardi B performs at Z100’s Jingle Ball 2018 at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Dec. 7, 2018. (Photo: Getty Images)
Cardi B performs at Z100’s Jingle Ball 2018 at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Dec. 7, 2018. (Photo: Getty Images)

Despite appearing to breastfeed her daughter in the “Money” music video, Cardi said breastfeeding wasn’t something she was able to do. “It was too hard,” she said.

After giving birth in July, Cardi felt like she was in a haze and ultimately dropped out of her highly anticipated tour with Bruno Mars upon realizing it would be too difficult to bring her daughter on the road. Cardi has yet to hire professional help because she’s afraid she can’t trust anyone, so recently her mom has been helping out. Although the Grammy-nominated singer said she started feeling better a few months after Kulture was born, she is still struggling with some aspects of postpartum life.

“For some reason, I still don’t feel like my body’s the same,” she said. “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.”

Turmoil in her personal life likely didn’t help. In December, Cardi announced she and Offset had split following reports of his infidelity. He has been begging her to take him back, something that doesn’t seem entirely off the table.

Although Cardi said she and the Migos rapper are “not really” talking, the Harper’s journalist noted in the article that she saw a photo of Offset on the rapper’s phone with a time stamp reading the day of the interview.

So will the two get back together?

“I don’t think so” and “Who knows? You never know, you can never tell” were the singer’s nondefinitive responses. However, Cardi maintained she was not swayed by friends or family when making her decision to leave her husband.

“No, I decided on my own,” she said. “Nobody makes my decisions about my life but me.” Before they broke up, Offset apparently begged Cardi to see a marital therapist.

“I didn’t want to go to marriage counseling,” she said firmly. “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.”

The “Bodak Yellow” rapper said she’s not eager to jump into bed with somebody else despite her sexual persona.

“Just because I’m out there and very sexual doesn’t mean that I have to be whorish,” noted Cardi. “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.”

For now, Kulture — whom she calls KK — is her main priority.

“Before, I cared about everything — relationship, gossip. Now I don’t feel like I have the time to please people,” she said. “I don’t care about anything anymore — just my career and my kid.”

(And politics.)

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