Nick Cannon is setting the record straight about his celibacy journey. After confirming the news of his eighth child, the comedian and talk show host clarified that his decision to abstain from sex came after he’d learned about model Bre Tiesi’s pregnancy.

“My therapist was one of the [people] who said I should probably be celibate and the reason why is because I had shared that news about Bre being pregnant,” he told Angela Yee on his self-titled talk show. “It was like, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ I felt like I’m not, I was tryna get a grasp. I was like I have a new show coming out. That was the reason why I started my celibacy journey back then. So for anyone who’s thinking, ‘Oh he wasn’t celibate,’ I was!”

Back in October, Cannon announced that he was “going to try to be celibate until 2022.” Unfortunately, he fell short of his goal, admitting that he “almost made it to New Year.” Still, the comedian claimed the experience was a positive one that helped him process the news of his forthcoming child.

“I felt like I was out of control and honestly, celibacy did help me through the journey of getting one with myself and being able to deal with this,” he said.

Earlier this week, Cannon revealed that his eighth child will be a baby boy. He confessed that he grappled with how he would share the news with the world following the death of his youngest son.

“This was always in the back of my mind, like, ‘What is the right time? How do I share this?’” he said. “No one, we didn’t expect Zen to pass away … All of the news was so unexpected.”

“I wanted to definitely respect the grieving process with Alyssa, and Bre was respectful enough — She held off making our announcements and speaking on social media,” Cannon continued. “She’s a very, you know, in the public eye type of person, but keeps her stuff private as well.”

See Nick Cannon discuss his celibacy below.