Brittany Bell, the mother of three of Nick Cannon’s children, earned a doctorate in psychology in May and built her dissertation around Black fathering—research she said was shaped in part by her own experiences, including her father’s suicide.
Nick Cannon didn’t have to look far for a real-life example of what he calls an “expensive tradition” — and the family story that runs through it now includes Brittany Bell, whose doctorate research centered on fathers with children across multiple homes.
Bell, who is the mother of three of Cannon’s 12 children, earned her doctor of psychology degree from Alliant University in May. She shared the news on Instagram, and the subject of her dissertation reads like a direct answer to a question she has lived.
Her dissertation. titled “Black Fathering and the Experiences of the Adult Child With Multiple Siblings From Different Women. ” focused on people who have several siblings from the same father but different mothers. The work investigates “the lived experiences of adult males fathered by Black men who did not reside in the home and who fathered multiple children with different women. ” according to the abstract.
Bell and Cannon have three children together: Golden, 9, Powerful, 5, and Rise, 3.
Cannon. meanwhile. has shared a different family map publicly across several relationships. including twins Moroccan and Monroe with ex-wife Mariah Carey; twins Zion and Zillion and daughter Beautiful with Abby De La Rosa; daughter Halo and late son Zen with Alyssa Scott; son Legendary with Bre Tiesi; and daughter Onyx with LaNisha Cole.
In her dissertation. Bell dedicated the study to her children — calling them the “heart of everything I do.” She wrote in the dedication: “You are my reason. my grounding force. and my greatest source of strength. I love you.” She also dedicated the research to “every man and woman who chooses to break patterns that no longer serve them and continue to rise in the pursuit of healing. growth. and self-definition.”.
In a February 2025 interview on the “Change Your Brain Every Day” podcast. Bell said her research topic was inspired. in part. by her own experience with her father. who died by suicide. as well as her stepfather. She later described the subject as “a phenomenological study on Black fathering – how coincidental.”.
When Dr. Daniel Amen commented that the topic sounded autobiographical, Bell agreed: “Yeah, isn’t it?” She then explained the path to the dissertation wasn’t only personal instinct. Her first choice, she said, wasn’t the same direction the project ultimately took.
Bell said an advisor suggested the topic after she mentioned being interested in research on Black parents. “I said, ‘okay, you’re on point,’” she recalled. “She didn’t know anything about my personal life.”
The through-line here is what Bell appears to be doing with her own past: turning private pain and family complexity into a study of lived experience, with language precise enough for academic inquiry and personal enough to read like a promise to the next generation.
Brittany Bell Nick Cannon doctorate Alliant University dissertation Black fathering psychology Change Your Brain Every Day Golden Powerful Rise