The ‘Shock’ Of Late Son Zen’s Brain Cancer Diagnosis Recalled By Nick Cannon

Nick Cannon spoke with ET on Wednesday (Dec. 14) about his late son Zen’s battle with a rare form of brain cancer.

In an interview with Dr. David Agus, the Masked Singer host revealed that he initially brought Zen for a checkup after the baby began breathing abnormally. “But when we took him to the doctor, they noticed that his head was larger than it should’ve been at 2 months. “And that was the first sign that something was going on,” he explained in the latest episode of The Checkup With Dr. Agus.

“They ran a lot of tests on him and wouldn’t let him leave the hospital,” Cannon explained. “And so you can imagine, you think you’re taking your son in for a checkup for, at worst, asthma, you know? And then to learn that he has brain cancer was a surprise.”

Cannon went on to say that his and Alyssa Scott’s primary focus from that point forward was the 2-month-quality old’s of life, from allowing doctors to insert a shunt to drain the fluid from his brain to deciding against further, more aggressive treatment like chemotherapy.

“They basically told me, ‘Best-case scenario, your son could live to 3 or 4 years old,'” he explained. “And so, when I heard that, I was like, ‘OK, quality of life. ‘I want him to have the best life he can possibly have.'”

Zen died in December 2021, at the age of 5 months. Since then, Cannon has had four more children with four different women, and Scott announced last month that her second child with the star is on the way, bringing his total number of children to a dozen.

Cannon’s episode of The Checkup is now available to watch on Paramount+. Interviews with Oprah Winfrey and Maria Shriver, Amy Schumer, Ashton Kutcher and his twin brother Michael, and others can be found in later episodes.

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