Iggy Azalea’s son Onyx is her "favorite person in the entire universe."
Azalea quietly welcomed her son Onyx with her ex Playboi Carti in 2020 and announced his arrival months after his birth. Despite calling motherhood “really hard” during an August 2021 interview with PEOPLE, Azalea ultimately defined her new role as “super fulfilling.”
“I feel way more accomplished to know that I am able to do all these things at the same time,” she explained, adding that it can be hard to balance life as a mom with her career. "I like to spend the whole day with my son, and he doesn't go to bed until 7 o'clock. That's when the clock starts for me, whether it's in the studio or working on other creative projects.”
Azalea said she has come to learn that motherhood is a “never-ending cycle” of trying to find balance in what she wants, adding that she has “big respect” for working mothers.
“Whether you're an entertainer or whatever you do, it is a tough balance, but it's really fulfilling,” she explained. “I love knowing that all the projects I'm doing are things that my son's going to get to see one day and be like, 'My mom was really cool. Look what she did.' ”
When she became a mom, Azalea said she learned to put her son first and examined how her actions were “going to impact” Onyx."I'm a lot more considerate and meticulous about the things I do, the people I invite into my life, the business decisions I make, or how much time that's going to take away from me raising my son,” she told PEOPLE. "I am more conscious of my decision-making, my reasoning."
Here is everything to know about Iggy Azalea and Playboi Carti's son, Onyx.
His mom announced his birth in June 2020
On June 10, 2020, Azalea announced on Instagram that she had recently welcomed her first child, a son. At the time, she did not share his date of birth or his name publicly.
"I kept waiting for the right time to say something, but it feels like the more time passes, the more I realize I'm always going to feel anxious to share news that giant with the world,” she wrote on her Instagram Story. “I want to keep his life private but wanted to make it clear he is not a secret & I love him beyond words.”
His name shares a similarity with his mom's
Azalea – born Amethyst Amelia Kelly – announced her son’s name publicly in July 2020, more than a month after she announced his birth. She revealed his name was Onyx in a post on Instagram, sharing a graphic that read “Amethyst & Onyx” paired with audio of the rapper talking to her infant son.
The “Black Widow” performer acknowledged the mother-son duo’s thematic names in the comment section when a fan called out that their gemstone monikers went “so well together." Azalea replied, “We besties forever.”
Azalea said she and Carti are "not co-parenting"
Azalea and Carti met in 2018 while she was touring overseas and started a relationship shortly after. However, the couple ultimately broke up in October 2020 when Onyx was a few months old.
The singer broke the news about the split on her Instagram Stories, later adding in a follow-up post, “What I meant last night was that I’m raising my son alone & I’m not in a relationship.”
Shortly after, she clarified her comments in another post to dispel rumors about Carti’s involvement in their son’s life. While at the time, she wrote that Onyx "has always had both parents in his life from day 1," in July 2024, she said that she is now "very much the only parent" to their son.
"I'm very much a single mother. I'm very much the only parent, no disrespect, but yes, I am not co-parenting really, and that's just the reality of it. It's one, it's 24/7," she said while appearing on Sony Music Entertainment’sDinner's On Mepodcast.
Azalea is protective of him
Though both of Onyx’s parents are famous rappers, Azalea has been open about shielding her son from the public eye.
"I want him to have his own identity. I don't want him to be so attached to me," she told PEOPLE in July 2021. "I want him to have a chance to be his own person. And I don't want people to know him or have an opinion about him before they even meet him or before he's even decided who he is."
Azalea also shared her hopes for Onyx in the future, adding, "I just hope he turns out being kind to everyone. That's my biggest thing. I want him to just be kind."
Shortly after her son celebrated his first birthday, Azalea set boundaries on social media to protect Onyx from online vitriol. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) in July 2021, the rapper said she would not be sharing any more photos of her son on social media.
"I've decided I won't be posting about Onyx or sharing images online anymore," Azalea wrote in the since-deleted message. "Y'all not about to be out here playing with my baby on my watch, nope!"
He helped his mom with her perfectionism
Azalea told PEOPLE in 2021 that she had learned a lot of new things about herself since becoming a mother, which led to some much-needed changes in her life.
"Motherhood has taught me to just go with the flow a little bit more, because I'm such a perfectionist," Azalea explained. "I really like to micromanage all my music videos. And I'm used to having everything be perfect. But with a kid, you have to be much more spontaneous in your life and just be like, 'Oh, f--- it.' You know what I mean?"
She continued, adding, "Kids will do their own thing. And so it helps me to enjoy myself, even when I'm not in control all the time, because he's in control.”
Azalea got a tattoo for him
Ahead of Onyx’s 2nd birthday, Azalea honored her son with a sweet gesture — getting a tattoo of him.
The rapper gave fans a glimpse of the tattoo in a video shared on Instagram of the actual tattooing process. The ink features her son as a small cherub with “Onyx Orion” written on a banner across the lower half of his body.
"My new favorite & most special tattoo!” she captioned the since-deleted post.
He is a "goofball" according to his mom
Azalea described her son as a “big goofball” during an August 2021 interview with PEOPLE, adding, "He's very curious, independent, inquisitive and fun."
"He's not worried about needing to have mom always there,” she said of Onyx. “He wants to run out and jump in the pool and jump off the couch. He's crazy and fun. When new people come up, he's not scared of them. He wants to meet them."
Azalea further described how her son acts at home, sharing that he often walks around wearing a dinosaur suit and a pair of sunglasses, which she said are two of his favorite things. "I bought him eight pairs of sunglasses, and he puts them on and everyone's like, 'Oh, you're so cool' ... so he really likes to wear them," she explained.
He has toured with Azalea
From August to October 2021, Azalea hit the road with Pitbull on his I Feel Good Tour across North America. Ahead of the trip, Azalea told PEOPLE it would be the first time she spent more than one night away from Onyx since he was born.
However, Azalea made the decision to tour without Onyx, explaining that he was “too young” to live on a bus. The rapper added that Onyx would join her occasionally throughout the tour when she could stay in one state for several days.
"When we're in Florida, I'm stationing my son in Orlando so he can go to Disneyland every day and do the fun stuff. Then I'll go to Tampa and come back every night," Azalea explained. "Texas is another one where I'm able to go and do shows within the state and come back to my son every night, because honestly, I'm just a big softie, and I can't be without my son for that long."
All in all, Azalea said the longest she’d go without seeing her son on tour would be five consecutive nights, which she said she was “dreading” and began “feeling guilty about it as a mother” before the tour even started.
Eventually, she did end up bringing Onyx on a later tour with her, though while on the Dinner's On Me podcast she said it was now her "job as a parent" to slow down and engage with him in one place.
"I toured two years with my son on a bus and it was time for that to end," she said.
He spends plenty of one-on-one time with his mom
Azalea has had an adorable addition to her work days since welcoming Onyx. The rapper’s son has tagged along with her, including sitting with her while she got glammed up in August 2022. She showed off their mother-son day in a since-deleted Instagram post, sharing several snaps of Onyx sitting in her lap while she sat in her makeup chair.
“Me & my bestie go everywhere together,” she wrote in the caption. “Never not with me.”
He started school in 2023
Azalea and her son marked a milestone moment for their family in April 2023: Onyx’s first day of preschool. The rapper shared a photo of her son wearing a tie-dye shirt and matching shorts along with a dinosaur-printed backpack.
“My baby's first day of preschool and I just can't take it...!!!” Azalea captioned the Instagram Story.