Nicki Minaj DEFENDS Relationship With New Boyfriend, Kenneth Petty

Nick Minaj has defended her relationship with registered sex offender Kenneth Petty, saying she won't let critics "run my life".

The rapper recently reunited with Kenneth, who is believed to have been her high school sweetheart, but immediately came under fire as he has spent time in jail for attempted r-pe of a 16-year-old girl.

She went Instagram official with her new beau on Sunday, sharing snaps of them cuddling up together as she celebrated her 36th birthday in Turks and Caicos.

She disabled the comments on her Instagram posts to stop critics pointing out his criminal past.

But she preemptively slammed her haters when she shared a picture of Kenneth lifting her up and another of her arching her back over him in bed when she captioned them: "Oh they wanna talk? Let’s give’m smthn to talk about. *Shania voice*."

According to TMZ , Nicki also got defensive when she admitted her new man had done something wrong.

"He was 15, she was 16 ... in a relationship. But go awf, internet. y'all can't run my life. Y'all can't even run y'all own life. Thank you boo," she wrote online.

But that's not the whole picture: Kenneth, now 40, spent nearly four years in jail after he was convicted of first-degree attempted rape in April 1995, when both he and his victim were 16.

He used a sharp object during the attack, prosecutors told the court, and was sent to an NY state prison for the crime.

After he was released, Petty had to register as a level two s-x offender - meaning he's considered a "moderate risk of repeat offence" - and must be on the s-x offenders register for life.