Nicki Minaj, 37, has been radio silent about new husband Kenneth Petty, 42, ever since he was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender in Los Angeles and later appeared in federal court. She has since dropped “Mrs. Petty” from her Twitter and Instagram profiles and replaced it with her latest single “Yikes” instead. Kenneth appeared before a federal judge on March 4 and pleaded not guilty for failing to register as a sex offender. He was then ordered to wear an ankle monitor, not to leave the Southern California area, surrender his passport and he was also given a curfew. He also can’t use drugs of any kind, even legal marijuana. He then had a mugshot taken by the LAPD.
The last time Kenneth appeared on Nicki’s Instagram was on Feb. 27, 2020 on a trip they took to Trinidad. Nicki dressed in a glamorous Crop-Over type outfit made up of a skimpy sequined bikini-style costume with blue and purple feathers coming out of the back of the outfit. She posed for an IG pic in Kenneth’s arms, but disabled all of the comments. A day prior Nicki shared a video to her IG account holding his hand while entering a DJ’s booth. She wrote in the caption. “And I love you. Anyone with an issue can kindly suck a d**k w|2 b*lls on the side.” Again, she disabled comments. Since his arrest, Nicki hasn’t posted a anything to either her Twitter or Instagram, nor has she done an episode of her Queen Radio podcast. She has not confirmed or denied a split.
Now fans are wondering if Nicki and her teenage sweetheart have called it quits on their brief marriage. Twitter user AJ wrote, “Streets are saying that Nicki Minaj and Kenneth Petty broke up.” Fan saanharris asked, “Wait why they saying nicki and Kenny split and she changed her name from mrs.petty on Twitter…what’s tea nicki?” User Tony was hopeful, tweeting, “Pray everything works out for beautiful queen of rap NICKIMINAJ and her husband,” as fan Zerrick had the opposite opinion, writing “Thank God! He was ruining her brand, she had to drop him or forget about continuing her career. Run and don’t look back @NICKIMINAJ.”
Nicki’s final IG post with Kenneth on Feb. 27 in Trinidad, just a week before he appeared in court after an arrest warrant was issued for her husband:
Kenneth was pulled over in Beverly Hills in November 2019 for a traffic infraction and that’s when cops discovered he was registered as a sex offender in New York, but hadn’t registered in California. He still failed to register after that, and the U.S. Marshals put out an arrest warrant for him in early March. He eventually turned himself in to the Feds on March 4. He pleaded not guilty for failing to register as a sex offender and was released on $100,000 bond. He had another hearing scheduled for March 23, but that was postponed due to the coronavirus lockdown, which has closed the courts in L.A.
Kenneth moved west in July of 2019 to be with Nicki. They tied the knot in a secret ceremony on Oct. 22, 2019 after dating for less than a year. The pair reconnected in Dec. 2018, years after being teenage sweethearts in Queens, NY. At the age of 16, Kenneth was tried as an adult and served four years in prison for attempted rape of a minor. He later served nine years in prison for manslaughter.