Nick Cannon’s 5-Month-Old Son Zen Dies of Brain Cancer

41-year-old TV personality, Nick Cannon has announced early Tuesday on The Nick Cannon Show that his youngest son, 5-month-old Zen, died of brain cancer and a subsequent tumor.

Cannon and Alyssa Scott welcomed Zen back in June, making him Cannon’s seventh child. On his show, Cannon tearfully shared how he and his family discovered Zen was battling Hydrocephalus.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.

“I always noticed he had a cough and so I wanted to check it out,” he said. “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 quickly discovered that it was not a routine visit and that Zen had fluid building in his head and it was a malignant tumor. The baby had brain surgery and a shunt to drain the fluid.

Cannon shared that things took a turn for the worse at Thanksgiving.

“Ultimately, it was cancer in the brain and the tumor began to grow a lot faster. And so we knew that time was…,” he began before getting choked up. “This weekend I made a valid effort to spend the most quality time I could spend with Zen. We woke up on Sunday — I got to spend the weekend with him — and I woke up on Sunday and was like, ‘I feel like I want to go to the water.’ We got a chance to go to the ocean.”