Nick Cannon has shared the tragic news that his youngest son, Zen, has passed away from a type of brain cancer.
The multi-talented host, comedian, dancer and actor revealed the devastating news during a taping of his talk show, saying, “Over the weekend I lost my youngest son to a condition called hydrocephalus that was pretty much a malignant, invasive midline brain tumour, brain cancer.”
Zen, who was just five months old, was Cannon’s child with model Alyssa Scott. He has six other children from other relationships, including 10-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe with singer Mariah Carey.
“I didn’t know how I was going to handle today,” Cannon told his audience. “But I wanted to grieve with my family.”
“You can’t heal until you feel,” he told the audience, explaining that he was back at work so soon after because he needed the distraction.
Cannon also explained that he had spent this past weekend with his son in California and said “not only did we get to see the sun rise, we got to see the sun set.”
Cannon previously told Entertainment Tonight how he had learned of his son’s condition, saying, “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 2 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.”
Tragically, Zen had been building up fluid in his brain that turned out to be a malignant tumour and surgery to drain the fluid proved unsuccessful.
According to the Mayo Clinic, “Hydrocephalus is the buildup of fluid in the cavities (ventricles) deep within the brain. The excess fluid increases the size of the ventricles and puts pressure on the brain.”
