This year Nick Cannon, 41, won’t be spending Christmas with twins Monroe and Moroccan, 10, who he shares with ex, Mariah Carey, 51. It appears that the Wild ‘n Out host understandably will not be doing much celebrating this holiday season after he tragically lost one of his seven children, son Zen, to a brain tumor earlier this month. Zen was only five months old when he passed.
HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with a source close to the exes who said, “Mariah and Nick have always made Christmas about the kids and have a solid co-parenting situation. Their children are very aware that they have two loving parents who care about them so much. Mariah and Nick have always made sure to spoil the kids at Christmas and this year will be no different. They sometimes try to outdo one another which is great for the twins.”
Although it’s unclear when Nick’s relationship started with Zen’s mother, Alyssa Scott, the two welcomed their baby boy on June 23, a mere nine days after The Masked Singer host also welcomed twins with Abby De La Rosa. Their baby developed a brain tumor and on December 7, Nick sadly announced on his eponymous daytime talk show that Zen had passed away.
Meanwhile, Nick paid tribute to his late son in an extra special way. Four days after Zen’s passing, the actor shared on his TV show on Dec. 10 that he got a tattoo of the 5-month-old to pay tribute. “This is a week where I’ve seen so much love. More love than I’ve probably ever experienced so even in the midst of a loss, I gotta say thank you to y’all,” he told the audience before sharing a photo of the tattoo during the show’s “Pic of the Day” segment.
“Last night, I got the opportunity to go get a tattoo of my son Zen as an angel on my rib,” the host said, showing a framed photo of the new ink. “I’m still all bandaged up and it hurts right here right now… It was a lot of pain but it was so well worth it,” he shared. “I enjoyed every moment of the experience to forever have my son right here as my rib, right here on my side, as my angel.”