Cam Newton revisited a thought that was once shared with him by Cheyenne Bryant, PsyD, about creating "broken families" by having eight children with three different women.
When asked about the biggest tackle he had to get up from, Newton opened up about Bryant’s remarks when they spoke on the Let's Be Clear podcast with host Jamal Bryant. “It’s still a work in progress,” he said at the 1:09:00 mark in the above video. “Vulnerably. It took something out of me when or when people say I created broken homes, and I’m just trying to make my wrongs right. Being a public figure, and bleeding in public is tough."
“When it was identified, I was like, ‘I never thought about it like that, and they’re so innocent, they didn’t ask for this,” he continued. “And I would always say, ‘I know right from wrong, I just don’t always do right.’ Raised in a church, preacher’s kids, they’re the worst ones. I know that. So, public ridicule is a constant.”
Newton wanted to make it clear that he remains a constant in the lives of his children. “Anybody who knows me, know I don’t play about my kids,” he said. “I really don’t, and I love ‘em. And there’s certain implementations that you only can do if you’re on tap.”
Cam brought up the criticism earlier in the interview when talking about missing his children while he was playing for the New England Patriots. “Being able to not see my children as much as possible really took a toll on me,” he said. “And you know, they say, ‘Cam, you got all these kids, all these broken homes.’ Man, I’m a hands-on father. It was fooling with me.”
Newton told Bryant during their conversation that he was open to the idea of having more children, but admitted his “desire to get married is lower than my fear of divorce.”
Bryant suggested this particular frame of mind leaves himself open to creating “broken families,” regardless of his level of involvement in their lives.
“You are proactively choosing where you want to be active at, and where you want to take your time,” she said. “You want to take your time in having a wife because of your own fears, but you will — and I say this will all respect and love — but you will selfishly create broken families.”
“Even if you’re in their lives and you’re a proactive father — and I believe you’re an amazing dad — but these families are still broken,” she added. “Every child cannot have papa in the house with them. So, some child, if not all, will end up with some kind of deficit without daddy being there.”
