“I was making sacrifices”: Cardi B on the cost of being a working mum

Highlights

• Cardi B gets candid about the difficult side of being a working mom.
• The rapper says her children may understand her choices differently as they get older.
• Her career has meant spending time away from her family.
• Motherhood has not stopped Cardi from staying true to herself.

Cardi B has built her career by refusing to fit neatly into expectations, but motherhood has brought a different kind of pressure.

The Grammy-winning rapper is raising four children while continuing to record, perform and tour, meaning her success has sometimes come with a difficult trade-off. In a new Vogue interview, Cardi reflects on spending time away from her children and why she hopes they will eventually understand the choices she made.

For Cardi, the hardest part is knowing that the people she works so hard for may not always understand why she could not be there.

“I was making sacrifices for a better living”

Cardi knows her children may eventually question some of the time she spent away from them.

Touring and working on music can mean missing everyday moments that cannot be recreated. But she wants her children to know that those absences were not about choosing fame over family.

She hopes they will look back and understand that she was working to provide a better life for them.

The rapper has never suggested that balancing motherhood and a major music career is effortless. Instead, she has been open about the compromises involved in trying to do both.

That reality can be difficult for any working parent, but Cardi faces the added pressure of having her choices scrutinized publicly.

Cardi B wants women to “beat the odds”

Her experience has also shaped the message she wants to send to other women.

Cardi believes she has shown that women can work hard, raise children and continue pursuing ambitious careers despite the criticism that can come with doing both.

For her, the point is not that motherhood should be easy to combine with a demanding career. It is that women should not have to abandon their ambitions simply because they become mothers.

Her own career has continued through pregnancy and motherhood, with the rapper refusing to let either define the limits of what she can achieve.

Motherhood has not changed who Cardi B is

Becoming a mother has not meant Cardi has abandoned the bold personality that made her famous.

She remains outspoken about fashion and her personal style, although she admits there are certain boundaries when it comes to her children, including what she wears around her daughter's school.

That balance reflects Cardi's wider approach to motherhood. She is not trying to become a completely different person for her children. Instead, she is figuring out how to be a mother while maintaining the ambition and individuality that helped shape her career.

For Cardi, the sacrifices are real. So is her hope that her children will one day understand why she made them.