Ice-T spoke about his unique parenting style in a new podcast interview, People reports.
The actor and hip-hop icon (born Tracy Marrow) is father to daughter Chanel, 7, with wife Coco Austin. The “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” star has two other children from different relationships.
Ice-T’s eldest is daughter LeTesha Marrow, 47, whom he shares with his high school girlfriend, Adrienne, according to People. Ice’s ex-girlfriend Darlene Ortiz is the mother to his second child and only son, 31-year-old “Ice” Tracy Marrow Jr. During Ice-T’s recent appearance on the “That Moment with Daymond John” podcast, he talked about the differences between raising his older children and his young daughter.
“I am so much more connected to her than my other kids,” he said, according to People.
Ice-T admitted to being “distracted” with his music career when his two other children were younger, but said today his work-life balance is more “comfortable.”
“I’m in a cruise pattern,” he stated, asserting that raising Chanel has made him “want to live forever.”
“It made me create new goals. It’s the best gift I could ever get,” Ice-T added.
One standout moment in the conversation came when the artist revealed that Chanel still sleeps in the bed with him and his wife. This sparked debate on social media about Ice-T and Austin’s parenting.
The couple has clapped back at critics on social media who have much to say about their style of parenting, from Austin breast-feeding Chanel at age 5 to bathing the child in the sink at age 6.
“Chanel still likes my boob,” Austin told Us Weekly in a 2021 interview when her daughter was 5.
She said some people questioned nursing a child that age, saying children are “‘not getting the nutrition after 2 years old. Why do it?’ And I’m like, My child’s eating steak and hamburgers,” Austin continued. “She just likes a little snack every now and then and more of the bonding between the mother. Why take that away from her?”