Honestly, the internet has a weird way of making things more complicated than they actually are. If you’ve spent any time on X or scrolling through TikTok comments lately, you’ve probably seen the name Kenneth Petty pop up more than a few times. Usually, it's followed by a firestorm of controversy or a ride-or-die defense from the Barbz. But at the end of the day, when you strip away the stage lights and the rap beefs, the answer to who is Nicki Minaj married to is pretty straightforward: it’s her high school sweetheart.
The guy behind the "Zoo" nickname
Kenneth "Zoo" Petty isn't some industry executive or a fellow rapper who met Nicki at an awards show. That’s the thing that trips people up. He’s a guy from her old neighborhood in Queens. They met when they were basically kids. Nicki was just Onika Tanya Maraj back then, a girl with big dreams attending LaGuardia High School. He’s known her since she was 14 or 15 years old.
You’ve got to think about how rare that is. In a world where every move she makes is analyzed by millions, she’s with someone who remembers her before the wigs, the accents, and the multi-platinum records. Nicki has literally said in interviews, like her 2023 Vogue cover story, that he’s one of the few people who doesn't call her "Nicki." To him, she’s just Onika. There’s an "ease" there, as she puts it. They make each other laugh. They reminisce about stories from the block that nobody else would understand.
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A timeline of the "Megatron" romance
It wasn't a straight line from high school to the altar. They dated as teenagers, lost touch for years while Nicki became a global superstar, and then reconnected around 2018. It was a whirlwind after that.
- December 2018: Nicki "hard launches" the relationship on Instagram.
- October 21, 2019: They officially tie the knot. No massive, televised wedding. Just a low-key ceremony and some "Mr. and Mrs." mugs shared on social media.
- September 2020: They welcome their first child, a son the world knows affectionately as "Papa Bear."
She even rapped about their history on the track "Zanies and Fools," mentioning how she met her husband at 17 and how "timing is everything."
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The elephant in the room: Why the controversy?
Look, we can't talk about who is Nicki Minaj married to without mentioning why people get so heated about him. Kenneth Petty has a heavy legal history. He’s a registered sex offender due to a conviction from 1995 involving an attempted rape when he was 16. Later, he served time for first-degree manslaughter following an incident in 2002.
The public hasn't been quiet about this. Critics have slammed Nicki for standing by him, but she hasn't budged. She’s defended him repeatedly, arguing that the internet doesn't know the full story of what happened when they were kids. In her eyes, he’s a man who has matured and changed. This loyalty has even led to more legal drama, including a $10 million defamation lawsuit from the victim of the 1995 case, who alleged that the couple harassed and intimidated her.
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Still standing in 2026
Even with the house arrest stints—like the one in late 2023 for violating probation after making threats online toward Offset—the couple seems solid. Just this past October, Nicki celebrated their five-year wedding anniversary. She posted a heartfelt message calling him her "soulmate" and thanking him for "catching her every single time."
He’s even been traveling with her. In 2024, a judge gave him permission to travel internationally for the Pink Friday 2 World Tour so he could help with childcare and support his wife. It’s a complicated dynamic, for sure. You have the "Queen of Rap" and a man whose past continues to haunt their present, yet they seem to operate in their own little bubble.
What to take away from the Maraj-Petty union
If you’re looking for a fairytale, this probably isn't the one for the books. It’s messy. It’s loud. It’s polarizing. But for Nicki, it seems to be about finding a sense of home in a person who knew her before the world decided who she was.
If you want to stay up to speed on this, keep an eye on court filings in California or New York, as that’s usually where the most concrete updates about Petty’s status come from. Also, listening to the lyrics on Pink Friday 2 gives a lot of insight into her mindset regarding family and protection. Understanding the history of Queens in the 90s also helps put their initial connection into a much clearer perspective.