World weeps over baby boy’s tragic death
NEW YORK: Popular US comedian, talk show host and television presenter Nick Cannon has shocked the entertainment world with news his baby boy has died from brain cancer.
Cannon, who also hosts the US version of The Masked Singer, broke down in tears on his New York talk show as he announced the death of his son, Zen, at just five months old.
The studio audience screamed in shock at the news, and Cannon wept openly as he detailed Zen’s battle with hydrocephalus and a tumour.
“I always noticed he had a cough and so I wanted to check it out,” Cannon, 41, explained. “He always had this real interesting breathing, and then by the time he was two months old I noticed … he had a nice-sized head – I called it a Cannon head.
“We didn’t think anything about it but I really wanted to take him to the doctor for the breathing and to get his sinuses checked. We thought it would be a routine process.”
Cannon and his partner, model Alyssa Scott, welcomed baby Zen in July. The family learned Zen – Cannon’s seventh child – had been building up fluid in his brain that turned out to be a malignant tumour.
Baby Zen underwent surgery to have a shunt put in to drain the fluid. Unfortunately, the tot’s health took a turn near Thanksgiving, so New York-based Cannon flew out to Los Angeles to be with Zen and Scott.
Cannon then tearfully shared that he held his son for the last time on Sunday. “You can’t heal until you feel,” he told the stunned audience. He called the episode a “celebration of life” for Zen. After Cannon shared the news with his viewers, Alyssa shared a photo of Zen in her arms lying with his eyes closed on her Instagram Story.