Nick Cannon shared on TODAY Thursday how he has leaned on his faith to give him strength in the wake of the death of his 5-month-old son from a malignant brain tumor earlier this month.
“You pray for miracles,” he told Hoda Kotb. “Coming from a faith-based background, it’s not for the miracle to do something that’s unknown to us, but it’s really for the things that we can find comfort in.
“So I asked for the miracle of strength to be able to be here today, and that I find that peace that surpasses all understanding.”
Zen, his son with model Alyssa Scott, 28, was diagnosed in August with glioma, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer. Cannon, 41, said that opening up on his show in the past month about the heartbreak he and Scott have endured has been “delicate” and “scary.”
“I’m taking it as my therapist says, five minutes at a time,” Cannon said. “I’m optimistic in finding the purpose through all of the pain, so I’m attempting to smile, I’m attempting to be the high-frequency individual that I’ve set out to be, but along the way there’s definitely some curves in the journey, so I’m taking it five minutes at a time.”
A tattoo for Zen
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Cannon and Scott made the emotional decision not to pursue chemotherapy for their son in his final months. Cannon has experience with chemotherapy himself from his treatment for lupus, an autoimmune disease.
“We were having quality-of-life conversations,” he told People. “We could have had that existence where he would’ve had to live in the hospital, hooked up to machines, for the rest of the time. From someone who’s had to deal with chemotherapy before, I know that pain. To see that happen to a 2-month-old, I didn’t want that. I didn’t want him to suffer.”
Cannon shared on his talk show last week that he got a tattoo on his ribs of Zen as an angel with wings and a halo. Scott also shared pictures and a video of their baby boy on her Instagram stories following his death.
Cannon is also a father of six other children. He welcomed twin boys, Zion and Zillion, with DJ Abby De La Rosa in June. He also has a 4-year-old son, Golden, and an 11-month-old daughter, Powerful Queen, with Brittany Bell, and 10-year-old twins, Monroe and Moroccan, with ex-wife Mariah Carey.
