Catherine Powell/Getty Images Nessa Diab’s hosting of the 2022 MTV VMAs was her first assignment since becoming a mother. Diab and her partner Colin Kaepernick, whom she began dating in 2015, welcomed their child in mid-2022. “Colin and I welcomed our amazing baby into the world a few weeks ago and we are over the moon with our growing family,” said Nessa.
Diab said she had no intention of sharing the news due to the personal nature of the moment. She then went on to praise Colin’s contribution as a father: “Colin is the most wonderful father and I am so grateful to have him by our side for every moment of this journey.”
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Nessa’s parents struggled to find work after moving to the US
Nessa Diab was born to an Egyptian father and a Middle Eastern mother. They moved to America before she was born and struggled to find work due to racial prejudice. She explained that people refused to hire her parents because they had an Arabic accent.
Diab’s parents also had difficulties getting their foreign qualifications recognized in the United States. She said on the Guy code podcast:
“My father worked so hard. My father had three jobs when he came to the US. He had to transfer his college credits from Egypt to UCLA so it could be equated with American degrees and whatever. But they just worked really hard.”
She continued: “My mother used to clean hotels. Even though she was a scientist, they wouldn’t give her a job because she was supposedly overqualified. Every time I think I’m working hard, I think of my parents.”
Diab got used to terrorist attacks after her father moved the family to Saudi Arabia
Due to her father’s job, Diab grew up in California and Saudi Arabia. Nessa said she got used to terrorist attacks when she lived in the Middle East.
“Bombings and everything that was so normal when I was growing up,” Diab said. “Terrorist attacks have always happened in Saudi Arabia. Always. We lived in a compound and I was so used to it.
Nessa said Starcasm that she constantly feared for her life. She wore gas masks to school and constantly heard explosions and war sirens. “I knew at this point I had to break out of this lifestyle,” Diab said. Nessa said she wasn’t surprised when 9/11 happened:
“When 9/11 happened, it didn’t surprise me at all. Wow. Mmkay. This is what we experienced, probably every few months.
Colin denied converting to Islam before Nessa
Prince Williams/Wireimage In September 2016, rumors circulated that Colin Kaepernick had converted to Islam for Nessa. The reports claimed that Colin had embraced Islam and was looking forward to a traditional Muslim wedding.
In an interview with the Washington PostKaepernick denied the reports. “I have a lot of respect for the religion, know a lot of people who are Muslim and are phenomenal people,” Colin said. “But I think so [runor] comes along with people’s fear of this protest, as well as Islamophobia in this country.”
Colin said dating a Muslim opened him up to conversations about Islamophobia. “This is an open discussion that I have with a lot of people, not just my wife,” Colin said. “She is Muslim. Her family is Muslim, I have a lot of respect for them.”
Nessa cited Islamophobia as one of the reasons two police officers killed Alton Sterling in 2016. She wrote on Instagram:
“Don’t let this ‘system’ criminalize Alton Sterling now to help justify these cowardly actions by the police. They will try and they will also try to discredit the shop owner’s story of what happened because he is a Muslim and we know that Islamophobia is at an all-time high in this country.”
