Eve Admits Taking 'Years to Adjust' to Becoming Stepmom to 4 Kids, But Now Feels 'Very Lucky'

Eve is grateful for her four stepchildren — her "bonus children."

The "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" rapper, 42, married British entrepreneur Maximillion Cooper in June 2014 after four years of dating, becoming stepmom to his four kids from a previous relationship: Jagger, Lotus, Mini and Cash. Eve tells PEOPLE she feels "lucky" to have had that instant family — though it took some getting used to at first.

"It's been now 10 and a half years I've been in their lives and they've been in my life. They've grounded me. In the beginning, when I first met my husband, then-boyfriend, I was like, 'This is never gonna last because you got four kids! How's this gonna work?' " she recalls. "But then I met the kids and honestly was like 'Wow, kids are amazing.' "

"I will say it took years, though, I'm not gonna lie," adds Eve, who co-hosts Tuesday's Play On: Celebrating the Power of Music to Make Change special on CBS. "It did take two or three years to adjust, just our relationship with the kids. But I have to say I'm very lucky. I feel very, very lucky that I had my insta-kids — I call them my bonus children!"

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Eve Says Quarantine with Husband Maximillion Cooper Has 'Solidified Why I Fell in Love with Him'

The artist announced last month that she's leaving CBS's The Talk after four seasons co-hosting, a choice she explains was made partly because she wanted to stay living full time in London with her husband. Prior to the pandemic, when regular travel was still the norm, she says they would visit each other every few weeks, commuting from Los Angeles to London and back.

"Family, of course, that's No. 1," Eve says of her post-Talk plans. "That's a lot of the reason why I made the decision to be here is because my husband and I were on planes every two to three weeks, and we were just exhausted."

"And you gotta be on the same continent with your partner to have a kid! So hopefully this will help," she adds with a laugh.

The Constantly Evolving podcast host tells PEOPLE that her teenaged stepchildren are excited to have a famous rapper in the family. She wishes, however, they would avoid adding her 1999 debut album Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders' First Lady to their playlists.

"I'm really lucky because they are very proud of me. It's really sweet," says Eve. "I do hope they don't go too far back in the day to listen to certain things. That is my hope. … Oh lord, the whole first album! You know what, it's fine, but it's just definitely a lot more out-there, vulgar, probably cursing, than I am now."

"But it's all good because we talk about it. It's all good," she says.

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