Nick Cannon Describes Losing Baby Son Zen To Brain Cancer

Nick Cannon

Cannon described his girlfriend Alyssa Scott as the “strongest woman I’ve ever seen.”

Our hearts go out to Nick Cannon and Alyssa Scott, who just lost their son Zen to brain cancer at just five months old. Cannon announced Zen’s death on his TV show Tuesday, adding that Scott was the “strongest woman I’ve ever seen” as he described what they went through.

“Over the weekend I lost my youngest son to a condition called hydrocephalus that was pretty much a malignant, invasive midline brain tumor, brain cancer,” an emotional Cannon told his audience. “It’s tough.”

“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,” he added. Cannon has six other children from other relationships.

Cannon explained that he and Scott took Zen to the doctor when he was two months old, after noticing that his head was larger than normal.

“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,” he explained. “We thought it would be a routine process.”

Doctors discovered a malignant tumor and build-up of fluid in Zen’s head. He was operated on quickly, and the surgeon implanted a shunt to drain the fluid, but his condition deteriorated rapidly around Thanksgiving.

Cannon spent last weekend in California by the ocean with Zen and Scott. He said: “Not only did we get to see the sun rise, we got to see the sun set.” It was the last time he held his son.