Pop Culture

Nick Cannon's Infant Son Zen Has Died After Battling Brain Tumor

Five-month-old Zen, the son that Cannon shared with model Alyssa Scott, was born over the summer and was the star’s youngest of seven children.

Nick Cannon’s five-month-old son Zen has died following a battle with a brain tumor, the father shared with his audience on the Nick Cannon Show Tuesday.

The infant, whom Cannon shared with Alyssa Scott, was born back in June and was the star’s youngest of seven children.

“Over the weekend I lost my youngest son to a condition called hydrocephalus that is pretty much a malignat, midline brain tumor—brain cancer,” Cannon, 41, told his audience, dedicating the episode to Zen.

As seen in the clip above, Cannon shared, “I always noticed he had a cough and so I wanted to check it out. He had this interesting breathing and by the time he was two months I noticed he had this nice sized head too—a Cannon head. We didn’t think anything of it. But I wanted to take him to the doctor for his sinus and breathing. We thought it would be routine.”

The family was eventually informed Zen had a malignant tumor and had to get brain surgery and a shunt to drain fluid that was building in his head. Cannon says things took a difficult turn around Thanksgiving.

Cannon said he tried to spend as much quality time with his baby boy as he could this weekend, and brought him to the ocean with Scott.

“Usually on Sundays, I handle everything I need to handle with the family, then I fly back—I rush back—so I can be here with you all,” he said on air. “I wanted to make sure I could allow the sun to rise and could hold my son. Holding my son for the last time, but it was a beautiful setting…I was still preparing my day as it normally went, to come back and come here, I didn’t know what it was gonna be. But even by the time I got in the car and was headed to the airport, I had to turn around.”

Alyssa Scott has not publicly commented on the tragic loss, but has shared a handful of clips of Zen to her Instagram Stories on Tuesday. Her profile contains several photos with her son.

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