Nick Cannon, Alyssa Scott announce 5-month-old son has died

Cannon revealed that he hadn't "shared this with anybody, not even the crew" until taping this segment. Through tears, the 41-year-old multihyphenate explained that Zen was taken to the doctor months ago "to check his sinuses," but a malignant tumor was discovered, which was causing fluid to build up in his head. Zen immediately underwent surgery to have a shunt placed.

Cannon and Zen's mother, Alyssa Scott, remained hopeful until Thanksgiving.

"We had an interesting turn, and the process sped up," he said. "Ultimately, if anybody knows how cancer [works], it was cancer in the brain, and the tumor began to grow a lot faster. And so, we knew that the time was ... so this weekend, I made a valid effort to spend the most quality time I could spend with Zen. We woke up on Sunday—got to spend the weekend with him, spent the night, and we woke up on Sunday and I was like, 'I just feel like I want to go to the water, close to the ocean.'"

"I wanted to make sure I had allowed the sun to rise and hold my son, and holding my son for the last time, it was a beautiful setting," Cannon continued, pausing often because he was too emotional to speak.

Cannon was planning on heading to the airport to come to New York City, as had been his routine to do his show, but he decided to have the car turn around because he couldn't bring himself to leave Zen. "Not only did we get to see the sun rise, but we got to see the sun set, too," he said.

Zen was born June 23, the youngest of Cannon's seven children.