Nick Cannon always strives to put his "kids first."

Nick Cannon

Nick Cannon

The 36-year-old rapper has five-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe with his ex-wife Mariah Carey, and has said the key to maintaining a healthy co-parenting relationship is to "remove your ego" and do what's best for their children.

He said during an appearance on Amazon's live chat show 'Style Code Live' on Thursday (16.02.17): "It's all about love.

"You put the kids first. But then when you understand that you have unconditional love for these human beings and you want the best existence for them, then you put whatever differences you may have had aside.

"A lot of times, when you think about breakups in relationships, it's usually over ego. And if you can remove your ego from that, and make it about your loved ones, that's what it's all about."

Meanwhile, the former 'America's Got Talent' judge said he won't let his status as a celebrity influence his children's career paths, as he wants to make sure they still put in the "hard work" required to accomplish their dreams.

He said: "If they want to be entertainers, God bless 'em. It's gonna be easy for them to be entertainers. I think as a parent, you want to encourage trying and effort, and putting hard work to the test to show something you can actually accomplish.

"So if it is entertainment, I'm gonna put them through it. I'm gonna make sure, one, school gotta be right. If you want to be a singer, sing in the choir at school. If you want to be an actor, act in a school play first. Go through that process that every kid has to go through."

But the star admits he doesn't want his children to follow in the footsteps of their parents.

He added: "I don't want my kids to be entertainers. But they have it. They're little hams - they see a microphone, they run for it."