The 'Drumline' star is a father to 12 children from six different women

NEED TO KNOW

• Nick Cannon is standing behind his parenting choices

• The Wild N' Out creator tells PEOPLE exclusively that "the proof is in the pudding" when it comes to his decisions as a parent

• Cannon first became a father in April 2011 with the birth of his twins Moroccan and Monroe with then-wife Mariah Carey

Nick Cannon stands behind all of his decisions, especially when it comes to parenting.

While speaking with PEOPLE at ESSENCE Festival of Culture about his podcast We Playin' Spades presented by Amazon and Wondery, the Drumline alum, 44, opened up about his "nontraditional, unorthodox" life as a dad of 12. Cannon, who shares his children with six different women, tells PEOPLE that he loves his children unconditionally and "there's nothing more important" to him than them.

"I love my kids unconditionally, and there's nothing more important than my children, so it's a learning lesson of love for me every single day," he tells PEOPLE. "The number one thing is just to be present and to be able to say, 'Hey, I'm here, we're growing together.' "

"But also to put a different face on the fatherhood, too, because you see it in so many different ways now that you didn't see before," he continues. "You can be present and you can have multiple relationships. We're getting so many different flavors of how fatherhood can look."

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Cannon is a proud father of 12. He shares twins Moroccan and Monroe with ex-wife Mariah Carey; sons Golden Sagon and Rise Messiah Cannon and daughter Powerful Queen with Brittany Bell; twins Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir and daughter Beautiful Zeppelin with Abby De La Rosa; son Legendary Love with Bre Tiesi; and daughter Onyx Ice Cole with LaNisha Cole. Cannon is father to two children with Alyssa Scott — son Zen, who died at five months old in December 2021 after being diagnosed with brain cancer, and daughter Halo Marie Cannon born on Dec. 14, 2022.

The actor and comedian adds that his children are growing up "surrounded with love," despite what the public thinks about his "nontraditional" parenting style.

"I always tell everybody it's the proof is in the pudding, so we're gonna see," he says. "As these children grow up and they're surrounded with love, all I can do is pray that they can have an open and loving life because they see what that is in a very, like you said, non-traditional, unorthodox way, but it's still filled with love."

When asked if there's anything different about parenting single children versus multiple children, the host of The Masked Singer notes that his twins were born as "best friends."

"Twins are best friends. Friends out the gate," he says. "They have a different understanding. They locked in together and it's actually like once they get to a certain age, they always got a companion, so it's kind of cool."

"They can ... parent each other, but they have that built in like a strong balance that they got going to where they'll check each other," he adds. "They'll embrace each other and they [will] be down for each other like no other sibling or family infrastructure."

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While speaking with PEOPLE in March, Cannon opened up about comments he made on a recent episode of the We Playin' Spades podcast about not being ready to rule out the possibility of having kids in the future. With his comments having now gone viral, Cannon told PEOPLE that he received a call from his grandmother, asking if he had another child. "My grandmother called me last night, like 'Another One!' I was like, 'Calm down,' " he recalled.

The actor explained that while he's "not against it," he won't be welcoming any little ones anytime soon.

"I really don't know. I'm being honest. I'm having so much fun in this space right now, and the way my bank account is set up, I'm going to press hold on this 12 for right now," he said. "But. I was just speaking of three years from now [or] five years from now, who knows? I'm not against it."

"There was a point in time where I was just like, 'Nah, I'm done.' And, then I was like, 'Who am I to say that?' " he added. "It seemed like it was such an emphatic thing. I never imagined that I would have 12 kids. So, it's one of those things where I love children. I love my life, and if it could keep going in the direction that it's going, why not?"