According to a Migos interview with Rolling Stone, Offset admitted that after watching Cardi rise as an artist, he had a publicist set up a dinner in New York with a group of women, including the Bronx rapper in early 2017. “I was like, ‘Damn, I am on her!’ ” he said. “I am like, ‘S–t, I like Cardi B!’”
However, it wasn’t until the Super Bowl that the couple were first seen holding hands in public. Cardi B was also spotted in a live video streamed by Offset, which was later reposted by fan accounts.
Migos were on tour promoting their second album Culture in New Zealand on Cardi B’s birthday, but that didn’t stop Offset from posting adorable videos and photos of the two in honor of the big day. Offset shared an intimate video with his girlfriend, and a candid photo with the caption: “H A P P Y B D A Y U ARE AMAZING TO ME YOU GOT IT OUT DA MUDD NO HELP NOBODY WAS BELIEVING AT FIRST BUT THAT MADE YOU GO HARDER U NOT WEAK U TAKE CARE YA WHOLE FAMILY AND ME —- I L O V E Y O U.”
In her true Cardi B style, she realized the negative implications of her beau not being in town for her birthday. “Oh, my gosh, I’m not getting no dick on my birthday,” Cardi told Rolling Stone in her 2017 cover story. She wouldn’t have anyway, as she noted, “Because I got my period.”
It wasn’t long before Cardi B reacted to the slew of breakup rumors by sending out a series of hilarious tweets. “Reasons why me and Offset got into it,” she began on Twitter, “I thought he stole my purple blanket but it wasn’t him so I’m still looking for the suspect.” The “Bodak Yellow” star also added that “on a serious note,” she is still head over heels for her man, who was “gifted to [her] from Jesus.”
Later that month, she explained the situation further on her Instagram Story. “So listen babes, I exaggerated a lil bit earlier cause I was really upset and the Bronx girl in me always have to go to the extreme. I came to my senses now. I’m sorry … waffle house on me?” she wrote.
As Cosmopolitan‘s April cover star, Cardi B opened up about her situation with Offset. “It’s like everybody is coming down my neck like, ‘Why are you not leaving him? You have low self-esteem.’ I don’t have low self-esteem … I know I look good,” Cardi told Cosmopolitan in an interview. “I know I’m rich, I know I’m talented. I know I could get any man I want — any basketball player, football player. But I want to work out my s–t with my man, and I don’t got to explain why. I’m not your property. This is my life … I’m going to take my time, and I’m going to decide on my decision … it’s not right, what he f–king did — but people don’t know what I did, ’cause I ain’t no angel.” She wrapped up with a hilarious question for her haters: “Since when are all these women dating pastors and deacons?”
In an interview with GQ, Cardi B once again commented on the rumors surrounding her and Offset’s rocky relationship. “For a long time we was in love with each other but we didn’t really trust in each other,” she said. “It was like a competition of who’s gonna hit each other up first. I don’t want to hit him up first; he will hit me up first. People used to put things in my head: ‘He gonna leave you. He be f–king with mad bitches.’ People used to put things in his head: ‘Cardi, she’s a dog. Don’t trust her.’ We never really trusted each other because I always feel like he could get any girl he wants — what makes me think he’s gonna want me? I think he felt the same way. N—as want to be with me, and bitches wanna be with him.”
She also mentioned that Offset is a great business partner. “I don’t really know the music business too well,” she admitted. “So I always feel like people taking advantage of me, he’s always making sure that I’m well taken care of or that I learn something.”
In an interview with The New York Times, Offset hinted that he and wifey Cardi could possibly drop a joint album, Beyonce and Jay-Z style. “I have no distractions,” he told The New York Times. “And me and her? We haven’t even dropped an album yet. That’s a whole other realm.”
He also added that marrying Cardi was “the best thing that’s happened” to him. “I’d seen [Cardi’s] potential, her vision, her grind,” he said. “Whatever she does, she’s going to master it. She’s like me … she brings excitement and pressure to me, but I like that … I have a wife and a child — that changed my whole everything. I was a young hothead, but now I understand the value of life.”
The day after his 27th birthday, Offset took to social media to comment on their relationship again, this time with a very candid apology to his ex. “I only have one birthday wish, and that’s to get my wife back,” he said in a video posted to Instagram. He went on to apologize for “breaking your heart, breaking our promise, breaking God’s promise and being a selfish, messed-up husband” and made it clear that wasn’t ready to give up: “I wanna be able to spend the rest of my life with you.”
His apology turned into an even more public affair when he crashed Cardi’s headlining set at Rolling Loud in Los Angeles that night. Offset showed up with a lavish floral arrangement that read “TAKE ME BACK, CARDI,” a gesture that didn’t go over so well. He and his flowers were quietly removed from the stage.
In a set of since-deleted videos shared on Instagram, Cardi thanked fans for their support — but politely told them to stop making Offset feel bad with negative comments on the Internet. “Violating my baby father is not going to make me feel any better, because at the end of the day, that’s still family,” she said.
“I’m not saying that I’m gonna get back together with him,” Cardi clarified. “I just don’t like that bashing online thing.”
Offset left his own thoughts on Twitter following his failed public apology to Cardi. “All of my wrongs have been made public, i figure It’s only right that my apologies are made public too,” he explained.
In her January 2020 cover story interview, the “I Do” rapper publicly set the record straight for the first time why she stayed with Offset despite the cheating scandals.
“When me and my husband got into our issues—you know, he cheated and everything—and I decided to stay with him and work together with him, a lot of people were so mad at me; a lot of women felt disappointed in me,” Cardi said. “But it’s real-life sh–. If you love somebody and you stop being with them, and you’re depressed and social media is telling you not to talk to that person because he cheated, you’re not really happy on the inside until you have the conversation. Then, if you get back with them, it’s like, how could you? You let all of us down. People that be in marriages for years, when they say till death do us part, they not talking about little arguments like if you leave the fridge open. That’s including everything.”
Cardi also explained how priests were involved in their reconciliation process, which she believes concerns no one else except for the two of them. “Everybody has issues. I believe in forgiveness. I prayed on it. Me and my husband, we prayed on it. We had priests come to us,” she continued. “And we just came to an understanding like, bro, it’s really us against the world. He has my back for everything, I have his back for everything, so when you cheat, you’re betraying the person that has your back the most. Why would you do that? We have come to a clear understanding. For me, monogamy is the only way. I’ll beat your a– if you cheat on me.”
Cardi gave birth to the couple’s second child, Wave Set Cephus, on Sept. 4, 2021, and seven months after his birth, the couple revealed the name and showed his face for the first time.
In the caption to the post, Cardi tacked on a trio of emojis that included a dinosaur, crashing wave and teddy bear. Offset also posted a pic with their son’s name, in which Wave is again staring off adorably at someone off camera while chilling in his baby bath. He is, of course, rocking a neck full of chains, including a custom piece made up of a diamond-encrusted wave — featuring the child’s name in jewels — adorned with a cute blue shark on an orange surfboard shooting the tube.
Over on Twitter, Cardi revealed that when Offset suggested the name Wave, “I was sold! THAT HAD TO BE HIS NAME!”
Cardi B stopped by the premiere of The Jason Lee Show and opened up about her relationship with Offset and how they worked through a rough patch in their marriage.
“Me and Offset, we was not seeing eye to eye. This was, like, the same year that I filed for divorce and everything,” the rapper told host and close pal Jason Lee. “The main thing that was really bothering me, I’m gonna let him say it himself … I want him to say it because I feel like that’s really part of his story.
“The main thing that I wanted him to stop and everything, he stopped and he changed. And it showed me that he wanted to change for me,” she continued.
Cardi also reflected on discovering she was pregnant with daughter Kulture when she and the Migos rapper “wasn’t on really good terms.”
“And I was so scared,” she said. “I was scared to tell Atlantic, I was scared to tell my team because we had worked so hard. I had worked so hard and everything and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, like, what’s gonna happen after this?’ I just had this feeling, like, it’s going to be OK.”
The rapper took to Twitter Spaces to shut down Offset’s apparent claims that she cheated on him. “Listen. Don’t pay attention that country man y’all,” she said in the three-minute clip, after singing the opening lines of Keyshia Cole’s “I Should Have Cheated.” “Don’t pay attention the country man. That Spaces the other day got motherf—ers spiraling and thinking s—. Come on now. I’m f—ing Cardi B, n—. I think sometimes mother—ers forget. I’m Cardi B. If I was giving this p—- to anybody it be not just anybody. Can’t f— regular-degular-shmegular, ’cause they gonna tell the world. And I can’t f— anybody in the industry, ’cause they gonna tell too. Y’all ever heard that Rubi Rose record where she says ‘got a big a– mouth?’”
She concluded, “So please boy, stop acting stupid. Stop acting Stupid. Going crazy over a f—ing space. Don’t play with me. What the f—. Stop playing. Thats all I’m gonna mother—ing say.”
Just hours before, Offset seemed to have posted and quickly deleted an Instagram Story accusing his wife of cheating on him.
“This motherf—er really likes to play games with me at my most vulnerable time. When I’m not the most confident,” a teary-eyed Cardi said to her followers in a video captured by The Neighborhood Talk. “He likes to play games with me because he knows that I’m not an easy girl.”
She continued, “You’ve really been feeling yourself… because of your b—- a– album and s—. And you really been doing me dirty after so many f—ing years that I motherf—ing helped your a–. Not even a f—ing thank you that I got from your b—- a–.”
Though the “I Like It” rapper didn’t indicate what brought the emotions on, she concluded by noting, “And it’s so crazy that I have to go to the f—ing internet because whenever I tell you something you don’t say s— to me and I’m so tired of it.”
Just one day after placing her second divorce filing, Cardi revealed that she was pregnant with her third child. “With every ending comes a new beginning! I am so grateful to have shared this season with you, you have brought me more love, more life and most of all renewed my power! Reminded me that I can have it all!” she wrote in an Instagram announcement, showing off her bump in a glamorous maternity shoot.
“You’ve reminded me that I never have to choose between life, love, and my passion!” she added. “I love you so much and can not wait for you to witness what you helped me accomplish, what you pushed me to do! It’s so much easier taking life’s twists, turns and test laying down, but you, your brother and your sister have shown me why it’s worth it to push through!”
Things got ugly between the exes when ‘Set accused Cardi — during her Instagram Live — of cheating on him while she was pregnant with their third child. She then tweeted, “AND DID !!!!!!,” leading fans to wonder if she was confirming his accusation.
Cardi then slammed her estranged husband in her Live. “I’m too much woman for you,” she said. “I’m too much of a boss b—h for you. And I always been too good for you,” she said. “All three of [our kids] — I don’t regret none of them, but I regret you.”
Under clips of the livestream posted to DJ Akademiks’ Instagram, Offset commented that Cardi is “Insecure” and wrote, “The fact u keep going shows you hurt leave along don’t you got a n—a ain’t we divorced.”
Cardi told followers on X Spaces she’s taking proactive steps to make sure that this is her final breakup from Offset. “Slowly but surely, everybody gotta go their separate ways,” she said at the time. “My kids gotta get used to that, ‘No, you’re not going to come home every single day and your dad is gonna be here.’ Slowly, but surely.”
“One thing I don’t want to entertain is, ‘Oh, we’re in the same crib. Come upstairs, let’s sleep together,’” she added. “I don’t want to entertain that. I don’t want to sleep, I don’t want to f—k, I don’t wanna do nothin’. Because that’s what keeps us being in the same trap. Oh, we sleep together, we cuddling, the next day we smiling and then guess what? The same day we’re arguing, and we’re back in that cycle. I don’t want that cycle. That’s why I’m not entertaining love.”
During a more peaceful stretch in their divorce, Cardi told fans on X Spaces that she hopes to achieve a “healthy co-parenting relationship” with Offset.
“I feel like two weeks ago, there was a lot of beef,” she said. “I feel like things are calming down right now. I don’t want to have beef with anybody that I love … All the divorce things that happen, I want peace and I want friendship. I just want, like, a healthy co-parenting relationship, and co-parenting means no f–king, no flirting … I want peace. I want to be like my mom and my dad, they don’t f–k with each other, they just there for me and my sister.”
The “WAP” artist also gave an update on her single life: “I’ve been having fun, but I feel like me being single and me having fun, I have to stop it because I don’t want it to get in the way of my work … I’m paranoid to give people my time, I’m just playing around right now.”
In a string of since-deleted tweets posted by TMZ, Offset accused Cardi B of focusing on “d—” and trying to “make me look bad.” He added, “Drop the album and go up.”
Cardi quote tweeted his sentiments and responded, “So dating because I’m single means I’m just worried about d—?? You sound like a dummy.. trying to be fake nice after you did what you wanted from the beginning trying to push a narrative to these people.”
She then urged ‘Set to sign the divorce papers by adding, “F— off and sign the papers TODAY.”
Offset continued his tirade, writing, “When u split the custody I will [sign the papers] u ain’t worried bout music u worried about d— everybody can see it all u talk about [is] d— and in clubs burnt no music no nothing just drama.”
He then added, “Single and miserable check to last 10 spaces u mention me [laughing emoji] u getting hit the at the flex tho [laughing emoji] get ya flex on ma ma.”
Cardi B accused Offset and his mother, Latabia Woodward, of robbing her during an X Spaces, but didn’t provide any context on the theft claims.
“I ain’t listen after you and your momma robbed me,” she claimed. “Yeah, you and your mom robbed me cold, wiped my nose. Told you stop f—ing playing with me … You just called your daughter for the first time this year, yesterday. Your newborn.”
The “WAP” rapper went on to blast Offset for not playing the role of Santa Claus and failing to give their children any Christmas gifts. “You love your kids so much and you didn’t bought them s–t for Christmas,” she added. “But you came to New York to buy your other kids gifts. But you didn’t bought my kids s–t on purpose to spite me. Mind you, we was cool. We wasn’t f—ing, but we was cool. Stop f—ing playing with me.”
After learning of her estranged husband’s spousal support filing, an enraged Cardi B exploded on Offset during an X Space on May 30. “‘Cause now I’ma crash out and I don’t give a f–k. You a b—h. N—a, you a f—ing b—h,” she began. Cardi B denied the reasoning behind Offset’s spousal support request, as he told The Breakfast Club it was over Cardi “asking for everything” and not letting him see their kids.
“You such a f–king p—y a– n—a,” she continued. “Word to my mother, I want you to die, but I want you to die f–king slow. When you die, I want you to die slow in the bed. And when you die, n—a, you gotta think of me.” Cardi went on to claim that Offset has only seen their newborn daughter, Blossom, “like five times” since she was born earlier this year.
Cardi detailed to Gayle King on CBS Mornings about how she wishes there was better co-parenting communication with Offset.
“I just wish he was a better person, but it is what it is,” Cardi said to King. “Be a better person for your kids.”
The Grammy-winning rapper continued: “I think he has some type of hate in his heart right now,” she continued. “If we all move on, there shouldn’t be no animosity. Your life, my life, separate. We should be able to raise kids. We should be able to ask each other questions.”