Nick Cannon Tells Hoda Kotb About Decision to Talk About His Son Zen’s Death on His TV Show

Nick Cannon is opening up about the “delicate” and “scary” process of talking about the loss of his 5-month-old son Zen, who passed away on Dec. 5 after battling hydrocephalus and a form of brain cancer. The Nick Cannon Show host talked to Hoda Kotb about the difficult time for him and Zen’s mother, Alyssa Scott, during Thursday’s TODAY.

“I’m taking it as my therapist says, five minutes at a time,” Cannon shared. “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.”

“I’m taking it 5 minutes at a time.”@NickCannon opens up to @hodakotb about the tragic loss of his 5-month-old son, Zen, who was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer. pic.twitter.com/KtwzxSowJA

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 16, 2021

The Masked Singer host continued that he’s been leaning on his faith in the wake of his son’s diagnosis in August and death earlier this month. “You pray for miracles,” he told 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.” In that place, Cannon said he “asked for the miracle of strength to be able to be here today” and to be able to “find that peace that surpasses all understanding.”

Cannon shared with PEOPLE recently that he and Scott ultimately decided not to have Zen undergo chemotherapy after receiving his diagnosis, instead focusing on keeping their son “as happy as he could possibly be” after having difficult “quality-of-life conversations.” 

The father of seven explained, “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 two-month-old, I didn’t want that. I didn’t want him to suffer.” Instead, the family focused on their “favorite place,” which was Disneyland. “Every month we would celebrate his birthday, just really seeing it as a victory every time he had a milestone that he was still here with us,” Cannon recalled.