By ANI
WASHINGTON: Nick Cannon is mourning the loss of his baby boy Zen.
According to People magazine, on Tuesday, the actor announced on his eponymous daytime show, ‘Nick Cannon’, that his five-month-old son died of brain cancer.
Cannon shares the infant, who was born earlier this year, with model Alyssa Scott.
“Today is a special one y’all for many reasons but it’s not gonna be an easy one. I haven’t even shared this with anybody, not even the crew. I had a very tough weekend,” Cannon began.
The talk show host said that they took Zen, who was Cannon’s seventh child, to the doctor when he was 2 months old after they noticed his head seemed large.
“He had this real interesting breathing and by the time he was two months old I noticed…he had this nice sized head, I called it a Cannon head. We didn’t think anything of it, he had a normal Cannon head. But I wanted to take him to the doctor to get the breathing and the sinus thing checked out. We thought it would be a routine process,” he said.
The doctors discovered fluid building up in Zen’s head and a malignant tumour that required brain surgery. He subsequently had the surgery and a shunt to drain the fluid from his head.
“We were faithful and hopeful for that time. We carried on, he was still just playing with his brothers and sisters, I embraced every moment. Zen’s mom, Alyssa, was just the strongest woman I’ve ever seen. Never had an argument, never was angry. Was emotional when she needed to be but always the best mom, and continues to be the best mom,” Cannon said.
Cannon then said that Zen’s health took a turn for the worse around Thanksgiving as the “tumour began to grow a lot faster.”
The comedian said they spent “quality time” with Zen over the weekend in California, where he brought him to the ocean with Scott on Sunday before having to fly back to New York for his show.
Cannon shared through tears that this weekend was the last time he held his son.
“I didn’t know how I was gonna handle today but I just really wanted to grieve with my family, people who love you. I didn’t want to make it about any pageantry so I kind of went back and forth of what I should do but I was always taught, you go through it you grow through it, you keep pushing,” Cannon told his audience.
“I’m here to show that I can fight through this, I’m feeling it, I’m vulnerable, I’m open. this is a special show dedicated to my beautiful son Zen,” he added.
Scott gave birth to Zen nine days after Cannon welcomed twins Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir with Abby De La Rosa on June 14.
Additionally, Cannon welcomed daughter Powerful Queen last December with Brittany Bell, with whom he also shares 4-year-old son Golden. Cannon is also a dad to 10-year-old twins (son Moroccan and daughter Monroe) with ex-wife Mariah Carey.