When it comes to honesty, few celebrities have Cardi B beat. The rapper is an open book about her relationship's highs and lows, as she believes there's no point in pretending a partnership is perfect. Of course, the fact that she reportedly filed for divorce from Offset, her husband of three years, on Sept. 15 makes Cardi B's quotes and lyrics about breakups all the more devastating. (Elite Daily previously reached out to reps for both Cardi and Offset about the reported divorce filing but did not hear back.)
Over the course of their three-year marriage, Cardi's relationship was consistently plagued by infidelity accusations made against Offset, some of which the "WAP" rapper confirmed herself. The two even briefly split in December 2018 due to Offset's cheating, but the couple reconciled not long after. Because of this, Cardi has often felt compelled to defend her decision to stay with Offset, though she isn't shy about expressing the heartbreak that is also involved.
From dealing with cheating rumors to ending things with Offset to attempting to work things out, Cardi has always been candid about her relationship struggles, but these quotes about heartache definitely hit harder following her reported divorce filing.
When Offset was involved in a cheating sex tape scandal in December 2017, Cardi took to Twitter in January 2018 to explain her reasoning for staying with him, saying it wasn't right to cheat, "but what you want me to do? ... Start all over again and get cheated on again?"
Following those sex tape rumors, Cardi felt pressure from fans to end the relationship, even though she didn't want to. "It's like everybody is coming down my neck like, 'Why are you not leaving him? You have low self-esteem'," she told Cosmopolitan during a February 2018 interview. "I don't have low self-esteem … I know I look good. 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 sh*t with my man, and I don't got to explain why."
Even before marrying Offset, Cardi struggled to trust her partner. As she told GQ in April 2018, "People used to put things in my head: 'He gonna leave you. He be f*cking with mad b*tches.' 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?"
In "Ring" from Invasion of Privacy, Cardi shows uncharacteristic vulnerability when she sings, "You know it don't go to my head, I'm only arrogant in bed / I just love to know you wanna spend time with me instead / Now you all caught up, yeah / You all caught up and you done left me alone, yeah / You was all fed up / Ready for the next step, wanna be on your own."
Despite the cheating rumors, Cardi initially stood by Offset, though she admitted to feeling stressed by the accusations. "Every single day there's rumors about me and my dude," she told W in October 2018. "And it almost drives me crazy, because I start to believe them. I don't have no proof. I don't have receipts. But I just got to know my man."
In December 2018, Cardi and Offset broke up after TMZ leaked text messages reportedly exchanged between Offset and another women. "I've been trying to work things out with my baby's father for a hot minute now," Cardi told her followers in a video posted on Instagram. "...we've got a lot of love for each other but things just haven't been working out between us for a long time. And it's nobody's fault. I guess we just grew out of love, but we're not together anymore."
In her song "Thru Your Phone" from Invasion of Privacy, Cardi describes what it's like to catch a partner in the act with the lyrics, "I went through your phone last night / Saw some things I didn't like / I went through your phone last night / It's killing me, killing me, killing me."
Following her December 2018 split with Offset, Cardi told Extra she was ready for a fresh start. "I'm very excited for 2019 — I just feel like it's going to be a reset," she said. "2018 was the good, bad and the ugly year. Like, a lot of good, but a lot of bad, a lot of ugly, all mixed together."
For Cardi, deciding whether or not to stay with Offset after he cheated felt like a lose-lose situation. As she explained to Vogue in December 2019, "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. But it's real-life sh*t. 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."
Cardi sees infidelity as betrayal, and she expressed as much during her December 2019 interview with Vogue. "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," she said. "Why would you do that? We have come to a clear understanding. For me, monogamy is the only way."
In her song "Be Careful" from her Invasion of Privacy Album, Cardi appeared to send a message to Offset when she sang, "Be careful with me / Do you know what you doin'?/ Whose feelings that you hurtin' and bruisin'?/ You gon' gain the whole world/ But is it worth the girl that you're losin'?"
Amid the persistent cheating rumors about Offset, Cardi couldn't help but feel as though fans almost wanted to see her relationship end. "I don't really like talking about love much, but I feel like I have to do it, just because I want people to know a little bit," she explained to Elle in September 2020. "There's always rumors about me and my husband, and I feel like people would rather start rumors because they want me to be heartbroken. They want me to be hurt."
Cardi has yet to confirm the divorce rumors herself, but if she does, I'm sure she'll do so with her trademark candor. I'm rooting for you, Cardi!
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