All about Nessa Diab’s parents: Their struggles in the US

Nessa Diab’s hosting of the 2022 MTV VMAs was her first job assignment since becoming a mother. Diab and her partner Colin Kaepernick, who she started dating in 2015, welcomed their child in mid-2022. “Colin and I welcomed our amazing baby to the world a few weeks ago and we are over the moon with our growing family,” Nessa said. 

Diab said she wasn’t planning on sharing the news due to the personal nature of the moment. She then praised Colin’s contribution as a father: “Colin is the most amazing dad and I’m so grateful that he is by our side for every moment of this journey.”

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 employment due to racial prejudice. She explained that people refused to hire her parents because they had Arab accents. 

Diab’s parents also experienced difficulties getting their overseas qualifications recognized in the United States. She said on the Guy Code podcast:

“My dad worked so hard. My dad had like three jobs when he came out to the US. He had to get his credits from Egypt transferred at UCLA so it could be equivalent to American degrees and whatever. But they just worked really hard.”

She continued: “My mom used to clean up 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 just remember my parents.”

Due to her father’s employment, Diab grew up in California and Saudi Arabia. Nessa said she grew used to terrorist attacks when living in the Middle East. 

“Bombings and all that were so normal when I was growing up,” Diab said. “Terrorist attacks were always happening in Saudi Arabia. Always. We lived in a compound, and I was so used to it.”

Nessa told Starcasm that she constantly feared for her life. She wore gas masks to school and continuously 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 went through, probably, every couple months.”

Prince Williams/Wireimage

In September 2016, rumors emerged claiming Colin Kaepernick converted to Islam for Nessa. The reports claimed Colin had embraced Islam and was looking forward to having a traditional Muslim wedding. 

In an interview with the Washington Post, Kaepernick denied the reports. “I have great respect for the religion, know a lot of people that are Muslim and are phenomenal people,” Colin said. “But I think that [runor] comes along with people’s fear of this protest, as well as Islamophobia in this country.”

Colin said dating a Muslim had opened him up to conversations about Islamophobia. “This is an open discussion that I have with many people, not just my woman,” Colin said. “She is Muslim. Her family is Muslim, I have great respect for them.”

Nessa cited Islamophobia as one of the reasons why two police killed Alton Sterling in 2016. She wrote on Instagram:

“Don’t let this ‘system’ now criminalize Alton Sterling to help justify these cowardly actions by the police. They will try and they will also try to discredit the store owner’s account of what occurred because he’s Muslim and we know Islamaphobia is at an all time high in this country.”