Nick Cannon is mourning the loss of his youngest child, Zen Scott Cannon, who battled a midline brain tumor called hydrocephalus in his short life.
Zen, five months old, passed away over the weekend, the father revealed on his daytime program, "The Nick Cannon Show." He said that he was opening up about this loss for the first time as not even his crew was aware that there had been a death in his family.
Fighting back the tears, Cannon said that he took Zen to the beach one last time during the weekend to watch the sunrise and the sunset with his son in his arms. He also thanked the Children's Hospital of Orange County, which assisted and educated him and Zen's mother, Alyssa Scott.
What is Hydrocephalus?
According to the Children's Hospital of UCLA, hydrocephalus occurs in two out of 1,000 babies in the U.S. It's a condition characterized by pressure in the brain as fluid builds up deep in the ventricles.
Hydrocephalus can develop due to spina bifida, an infection, a baby's prematurity, a head injury, or a brain tumor. The condition may be congenital in some families due to a genetic defect.
Canon said this his son started having a cough and an unusual breathing pattern that concerned him. When Zen was two months old, Cannon also noticed that he had a "nice-sized head" and figured it was common in his family, so this didn't bother him and Scott.
However, they thought that Zen's cough and breathing should be looked into and anticipated that the visit to the doctor would be routine. On the contrary, they were told that Zen had a fluid build-up in his brain because of a malignant tumor. The baby had to undergo surgery to drain the fluid, but his condition worsened around Thanksgiving.
"Ultimately, it was cancer in the brain. The tumor began to grow a lot faster," the father said.
Meanwhile, Scott shared a photo of her baby sleeping in her arms and one of his last photos with his unusual head shape in an Instagram story. The mother has yet to make an official statement.
Cannon Takes Time Off
Cannon said he would take a short time off to mourn the loss. His representative said that he canceled two tapings, and the episode that recently aired on his show was pre-taped. In a statement, a production staff on "The Nick Cannon Show" said they were not aware of the announcement prepared by the host during their live program.
The dad has six other children with different mothers -- 10-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe, with his ex-wife Mariah Carey, four-year-old boy, Golden, and one-year-old girl, Powerful, with model Brittany Bell, and 5-month-old twin boys, Zion and Zillion, with Abby Dela Rosa.
Cannon also said that Zen's mom had been the strongest woman he had ever seen. She didn't show any anger over what happened to their son. Though she was "emotional when she needed to be," she remained focused as a mother to their dying son.
