Nick Cannon uses charisma as his strong suit in dating.
The media personality hosted the Wednesday (November 5) episode of his podcast Nick Cannon at Night with one of the mothers of his children, Bre Tiesi, and women's health specialist Dr. Kerryanne Perkins. Around the 6:00 mark of the video below, a fan submitted a question asking the group whether they'd feel comfortable still dating a partner that wasn't physically attracted to them.
After advising listeners to "find what you are attracted to," Cannon revealed that since childhood, he struggled with accepting his looks.
"And I know as a man, just, all my life, I was a little scrawny little kid. I never led with looks," said the Wild'n Out creator. "I always like, yo, I was little, so I had to have a big personality. I had to like talk my way into getting a girl to like me."
'Cause' [women] were like, 'Oh, you're going to be so cute when you get older.' I was like, and I was like, 'I'm older than you,'" Cannon recalled. "So, like, in that sense, that was my gift and my curse because it never really mattered to me what I looked like because I never thought I was this handsome individual anyway."
"But I feel like it built up all of these other attributes because I was like, 'Look, I'mma have to keep up with the light-skinned, curly-haired dudes that get all the girls.' So, in that vibe, I feel like it made me a more well-rounded individual than some of the guys that were just relying on being pretty boys."
The approach managed to work for Cannon, who has twelve children among six different women, including pop icon Mariah Carey. Ironically, Cannon played Alvin Johnson opposite Christina Milian as Paris Morgan in 2003 teen comedy Love Don't Cost a Thing, where his character had to bribe Morgan into a relationship to become popular.