Nick Cannon Makes Heartbreaking Admission About Parenting His Late Son Zen

Nick Cannon is opening up about the “heavy, heavy guilt” he carries following the December 2021 death of his 5-month-old son Zen. The Masked Singer host got candid about his regrets during a therapy session with Dr. Laura Berman that was shown on Wednesday’s episode of The Nick Cannon Show, Cannon admitting that he wishes he would have spent more time with his late son before his tragic passing.

Before showing a clip of the therapy session, Cannon told his viewers that therapy has helped him “learn and grow and navigate through my unconventional personal life.” Cannon said he is a “work in progress,” adding that he walks “around with a backpack full of guilt.” He added, “At least I know the harder that I work, then it makes the guilt easier to deal with,” before the vulnerable clip aired showing the talk show host candidly discussing some of the guilt he carries.

“There’s this heavy, heavy guilt with the fact [that] I didn’t get to spend time like I really wanted to with Zen, that I have other children even in a similar age,” Cannon told Berman. “And it’s like, ‘OK, I’m guilty that I’m not there every day. I’m guilty that the mothers of my children yearn for more and I can only give them so much.’”

Cannon is dad to 10-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe, whom he shares with ex-wife Mariah Carey; 4-year-old Golden “Sagon” and 1-year-old Powerful Queen, whom he shares with Brittany Bell; and 7-month-old twins, Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir, whom he shares with Abby De La Rosa. He welcomed Zen with Alyssa Scott in June. The parents tragically announced in December that their son passed away from brain cancer. Cannon shared on his talk show that Zen was diagnosed with Hydrocephalus, which is a build-up of fluid in the brain, and doctors later discovered a tumor on his brain. He explained that his son’s health began to decline rapidly around Thanksgiving as the “tumor began to grow a lot faster.” Zen passed away in his mother’s arms on the beach.

Cannon, who has continued to publicly mourn the loss of his son, announced in January that he is expecting his eighth child with model Brie Tiesi. After sharing the news and revealing that he took a vow of celibacy, Cannon shared that he learned of Tiesi’s pregnancy prior to Zen’s death and he struggled “to figure out a chronological order or a hierarchy” in announcing the news. Cannon added, “when a life comes into this world, it’s a celebration, and I’m excited, I’m happy.”