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Nicki Minaj has opened up about her feelings of anxiety after becoming a new mother. The rapper, 40, is the latest Vogue cover star for the magazine’s December 2023 issue. Speaking to the publication, Minaj shared many details about her ongoing motherhood journey, after she and husband Kenneth Petty welcomed their son in 2020. Minaj and Petty, who were married in 2019, were formerly high school sweethearts and grew up together in the same neighbourhood in Queens, New York. The “Superbass” singer explained how Petty was unfazed by her level of fame, and noted that he even calls her by her real name - Onika Tanya Maraj. “Because I’ve known my husband for so long, there’s an ease we have with each other,” she told Vogue. “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.” The pair welcomed their son, who Minaj has nicknamed “Papa Bear” on social media in order to keep his privacy, on 30 September 2020. The “Barbie World” rapper admitted that she and Petty struggled with their relationship after becoming a family of three, much like many couples do when they become new parents. “I’m not going to lie, things got testy between us. Because of our history, I think we knew we’d get past it. But there’s no such thing as confidence in parenthood,” she explained, before recalling the amount of anxiety she felt after becoming a mother. “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,” Minaj added. “So often you think: I don’t know how to do this!” Minaj’s highly-anticipated fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2, is due for release on 8 December. The “Starships” singer previously told her millions of fans on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she had “decided to retire and have my family” just one month before she and Petty were married. However, the Grammy nominee soon realised that the studio was still calling her name - even if that meant needing to balance her family life with her professional career. “I think that deep down inside, I believed that once I had a family, I would just lose the desire to make music,” Minaj told Vogue. “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.” This isn’t the first time Minaj has opened up about feeling anxiety as a new mother. In an interview with E! News published in October 2022, the rapper revealed that she often feels like her “heart is being ripped out” when she is away from her now-three-year-old son. “I hate that I have more anxiety now because you’re like: ‘What if the one time I leave my child, I get that phone call?’” she said at the time. “I think moms feel like they have to be perfect.” Minaj then recalled when she was in the United Kingdom and started “bawling” over being away from her son. “And when I try to FaceTime him, I get more sad,” she said. “So, I try to hold out on FaceTiming him because to then put the phone down is so difficult.” The “Super Freaky Girl” rapper shared that she and Petty have never hired a nanny to take care of their baby. “I’m a Trinidadian woman,” she said. “Culturally, we’re not really used to nannies and strangers taking care of the babies. “It’s not a bad thing when moms do it. It’s just that I have to get conditioned. I have to get it out of my mind that it’s a weird thing, because there are tons of celebrities that are doing it and they’re raising amazing children.” Back in September 2020, Minaj announced the birth of her son by posting several photographs of handwritten notes from her celebrity friends congratulating her on the baby news. One of the pictures in the post featured a note from Beyoncé, which read: “Onika, welcome to motherhood. God bless you and your family. B.” “Thank you to Queen B, Kim & Ye, Riccardo Tisci, Winnie, Karol and everyone who sent well wishes during this time. It meant the world to me,” Minaj captioned her post. “I am so grateful and in love with my son. Madly in love. My favorite liddo boy in the whole wide world.” Read More How much water should we be drinking in a day? Irina Shayk reveals how she and Bradley Cooper make co-parenting daughter Lea ‘work’ What is silent reflux? How much water should we be drinking in a day? Irina Shayk reveals how she and Bradley Cooper make co-parenting daughter Lea ‘work’ What is silent reflux?

The director of the controversial Jennifer Lawrence comedy No Hard Feelings has addressed the criticism aimed at the film, and given a pretty clear response. Gene Stupnitsky has spoken about the age gap between the two main characters, which has attracted some backlash on social media. The sex comedy movie was released earlier this year and has now found a new audience after landing on Netflix. The film focuses on Lawrence's character Maddie who discovers a lucrative job for the summer; dating an introverted 19-year-old, Percy – played by Andrew Barth Feldman, before he goes to college. Social media users have criticised the age gap between the characters – but Stupnitsky shut down the backlash in a series of interviews. The filmmaker spoke about another of Lawrence’s movies, Silver Linings Playbook, which features a similar age gap between the characters played by Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. Speaking at the film premiere in New York, Stupnitsky said: “It goes the other way too. We took great pains to be careful about the ick factor because it could go that way... We took a humanist approach and I think that's all you can ask for." Feldman also spoke during an interview with Vanity Fair, saying: "Because what is a comedy if it’s not at least a little controversial?" He added: "But Percy is an adult. I am an adult, and this is a cringe comedy. It should make you uncomfortable. I’m disinterested in a movie, and specifically a comedy, about people who are perfect and make the right decisions all the time.” He went on to say: "[We were so thoughtful about it throughout. Constantly, every day talking about what it meant and how it would manifest in a truthful way. "And I think people are going to be surprised with not just how funny it turns out to be, and how uncomfortable it maybe makes them, but also how beautiful this relationship is and how heartfelt it is." It comes after Lawrence has left viewers of her new film No Hard Feelings stunned by a fight scene on a beach in the new film where the Oscar-winning Hollywood A-lister is completely naked. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

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England boss Gareth Southgate says he understands the criticism Jordan Henderson has received for joining Saudi Arabian club Al-Ettifaq but feels the midfielder’s beliefs have not changed. Henderson’s move to the fast-growing Saudi Pro League came under scrutiny due to his long-time support for the LGBT+ community and the Premier League’s Rainbow Laces campaign. Homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, while the state stands accused of a host of other abuses including placing harsh restrictions on women’s rights and the right to political protest. Pride in Football, a network of LGBT+ fan groups, said the England midfielder had “lost the respect of so many people who valued and trusted” him but Southgate says it is not a black and white matter. “It’s not for me to judge any individual whether they’re in football or in any other industry,” Southgate told talkSPORT. “I don’t think he’s changing his view on what he believes in. So now we’re in a really complex world where, what are we saying, nobody should go to Newcastle? Should nobody work for companies that the Saudis own in London or should nobody buy oil from the Saudis? “I think it’s very complicated, I completely understand the argument of, you know, you’ve supported the LGBTQ community and I can understand why they would have a really strong view on it. “I think it’s so difficult to say, you know, is Henderson saying he doesn’t support that community anymore? Well no, he isn’t, but of course people are going to say his actions are the reverse of that.” Henderson will be making more money than he ever has before, with a reported £700,000 per week salary, but the standard of football in the league may affect whether his England career continues. Southgate revealed the 33-year-old sought assurances about the prospect of being overlooked if he were to move. The England boss added: “I spoke to him in the summer, the question he wanted to know was, ‘If I move here, are you going to automatically rule me out?’. “We would be stupid to do that. Why would we rule anyone out based on where they are playing? We have got to see how they are playing. “We have an idea of what that league will look like but we won’t know until we actually start to see the games. “If you asked me three months ago what that league would look like, I’d have a very different idea to what it is looking like as more and more players decide to go there. “Big-name players but not so many that are in the prime of their careers but not players past their sell-by date. “I think that whole project is fascinating for where it is going to head and what that might look like over the next few years. “But Henderson won’t be playing in the Premier League. He won’t play in the Champions League, which is the easiest assessment for the level he is playing at.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Iain Henderson backs Ireland wing Jacob Stockdale to fight for World Cup spot Ewan Ashman sets sights on Scotland starting spot at World Cup England hoping Tom Curry will feature in World Cup build-up despite ankle issue

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Lando Norris says Formula One drivers are never operating at 100 per cent and has called on the sport’s rule-makers to make the cars lighter. The McLaren driver, 23, is now in his fifth season in F1 and has emerged as one of the strongest drivers on the grid. But the British star admits he has some frustration with the cars and feels they limit how the drivers can perform. “It is frustrating. It feels like you drive so slow,” Norris said ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix. “You just feel like you are not driving at 100 per cent. You still have to drive at 95 per cent as well as you can.” “There are still differences between drivers of achieving that, how you drive at 95 per cent. You still see differences between how Lewis (Hamilton) can do it and how a rookie can do it. “You never drive at 100 per cent in the race because if you have one slide you’re done. You are just managing your tyres and your temperatures. “It is just the way things are. I’m sure in other categories it is similar-ish but you just want to be able to race closer. “I would make the cars lighter, as simple as that. You make them quicker by being lighter, you then remove some of the aero stuff which is now what makes them so impressive. “You remove some of that and it stops dirty air as much and then you will be able to follow better.” Regulation changes set to come into effect in 2026 are expected to reduce the weight of the cars and also make the tyres thinner. Norris is hopeful this is the case and believes the onus is on each team to get the car right for when the new rules are introduced. It for this reason that Norris has huge admiration for Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s domination of the sport over the last two seasons, amid criticism that it is bad for F1. “They are doing a better job. That is what F1 is about,” Norris added. “It is not just about the driver; F1 is one of very, very few sports in the world where there is so much talked about the driver but it is very much a team sport.” “It is not just who is the best driver, it does not work like that. It is about the machine and the driver. “That is the competition of F1, it is who can build and design the best cars. At the minute Red Bull are doing it, so hats off to them.” Norris disagrees with the opinion that people will turn away from F1 if Verstappen keeps winning, making the comparison with Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. “People do not find F1 boring,” Norris said. “Of course you want excitement for the win. That is the pinnacle of it, like Lewis against Max in 2021. That is probably the most exciting season in a very, very long time. “When Usain Bolt was winning every race, it’s boring because you want to see a close win. “But do you stop watching that because Bolt is winning? You don’t, you watch it because you are still like, ‘he is doing an amazing job and congratulations to him’. “People shouldn’t stop watching because someone is doing so well.” Read More Max Verstappen storms to Japanese Grand Prix pole ahead of impressive Oscar Piastri Max Verstappen pips Oscar Piastri to pole after tense qualifying for Japanese GP A sudden drop off or just a blip? Max Verstappen provides the answer ‘It’s real’: Lewis Hamilton in state of shock after Japanese GP qualifying Max Verstappen storms to Japanese GP pole ahead of impressive Oscar Piastri Max Verstappen pips Oscar Piastri to pole after tense qualifying for Japanese GP