Nick Cannon announced Tuesday on “The Nick Cannon Show” that his youngest son, 5-month-old Zen, has died of brain cancer. Cannon and Alyssa Scott welcomed Zen back in June, making him Cannon’s seventh child.

The 41-year-old shared how he and his family discovered Zen was battling Hydrocephalus, a form of brain cancer. Said Cannon: “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 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.”  However, the family discovered that Zen had fluid building in his head and it was a malignant tumor; he underwent brain surgery and a shunt to drain the fluid.

Sadly, Cannon said that Zen took a turn for the worse at Thanksgiving, sharing: “This weekend I made an effort to spend the most quality time with Zen. We woke up on Sunday and went to the ocean with him and Alyssa and then I had to fly back to New York for the show. I got a call on my way to the airport to head back to Zen”.  He told viewers he was at work so soon after Zen’s death because this is all he knows, calling the episode a “special show dedicated to my beautiful son, Zen.”  Cannon will now be taking some time off; he was was scheduled to have two show tapings on Monday, however those were canceled on Sunday and a pre-taped episode was aired on Monday instead.

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