Criss Angel Gives Optimistic Update on 7-Year-Old Son Johnny's Cancer Battle

By Allison Schonter

Magician Criss Angel's 7-year-old son Johnny Crisstopher's cancer is in remission. The famed illusionist, who shares Johnny with Shaunyl Benson, shared the exciting health update on social media on Tuesday with a video of his son ringing a bell to mark the end of his cancer treatments more than five years after he was first diagnosed with leukemia in 2015.

Sharing a 14-minute short film titled "1095," referencing the 1,095 chemotherapy sessions his son underwent throughout his cancer battle, Angel, real name Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos, excitedly announced, "TODAY OUR SON JOHNNY CRISSTOPHER WILL FINALLY RING THE BELL SYMBOLIZING HIS REMISSION AND THE END OF HIS TREATMENT!" The magician, 54, said the post was "the most important post I have ever made." The accompanying video — which Angel said no networks or streaming platform would air due to the "the subject matter," which Angel called "real life" — documented Johnny's years-long battle with B-Cell A.L.L. Leukemia, including everything from doctors visits, Johnny lying in hospital beds, and emotional discussions between Angel and Benson, who are also parents to son Xristos Yanni, 2, and daughter Illusia Angelina, 2 months.

"One child every two minutes is diagnosed with cancer. Cancer doesn't discriminate ... so I want to try and be a voice for these kids and I want to try to help these families that are going through the toughest time of their life and let them know that they're not alone," Angel said in the video, adding that he hopes to raise "hundreds of millions of dollars" to help fight pediatric cancer because he'd "rather be remembered for the work that I did with kids than the work that I did as a magician."

Angel requested that his followers "kindly REPOST or SHARE" the short film on their own social media accounts, "whether you love me or hate me – so that we can raise awareness and money to help kids battling for their lives right now." He also encouraged his followers to visit CrissAngelHELP.com for more information.

The Tuesday post came more than five years after Angel first announced that his son had been diagnosed with leukemia in 2015 when Johnny was just 20 months old. While Johnny briefly went into remission, Angel shared the devastating news in December 2019 that his son's cancer had returned, sharing at the time, "he got diagnosed with pediatric cancer before he was 2 years old – he's been in treatment for over three years, he's been in remission... but unfortunately ... he had a relapse and he's going back into the hospital."

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