R&B singer Brian McKnight and his wife, Leilani Malia McKnight, have welcomed a child, Brian Kainoa Makoa McKnight. The couple announced the birth of their baby boy in a joint Instagram post.
“‘For this child we have prayed and the Lord has granted us the desires of our hearts’ 1 Samuel 1:2 God’s greatest gift, our son is here!!! [white heart] Brian Kainoa Makoa McKnight [white hearts] We are so in love!!!! [red hearts],” wrote McKnight, who, with his wife, experienced the death of their newborn son, Kekoa Matteo — which he shared about in a May 2022 Instagram post.
Their post reached over 28,000 likes on Instagram, where fans flooded their comments section, sending over congratulatory remarks.
The McKnight’s public photo was soon accessed by several media outlets, whose comments sections were not so congratulatory. Quite a few fans wondered what inspired the couple to name their child Brian McKnight when the “One Last Cry” singer already has an older son named Brian McKnight Jr.
“Wait… your oldest is named Brian McKnight Jr, then you turn around and name this one Brian McKnight?… the audacity”
“Doesn’t he already have a son named Brian?”
“Not he disowned the first Brian Jr and decided to start back at one”
“But his disowned his older black children.”
McKnight has previously faced backlash from fans after being accused of abandoning his Black biological children from previous relationships: Brian McKnight Jr., Niko McKnight, and Briana McKnight, following his recent act of purchasing a 2023 BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe, for his wife’s daughter, Julia aka Jules.
Leilani also has a son, Jack, from a previous relationship.
His three children have even called him out in the past on social media for reportedly disowning them. McKnight’s second son, Niko, recently blasted his father for being “the biggest narcissistic, sociopathic a–hole.”
In 2019, McKnight’s eldest Jr. criticized him in a now-deleted Instagram post, stating that he “abandoned” him as well as his siblings.
“I don’t think there is any situation that merits the way my father has chosen to treat my brother, my sisters, and his grandchildren, one of which being his first born’s, first born son, who also bares our name,” he wrote.
McKnight’s daughter, Briana, joined her older brother in outing her father for, she says, constantly putting her “behind other kids that he would call his own while I’m cast into a land far, far away in the back of his mind.”
Disputing his children’s claims with a six-minute video, the 53-year-old denied any acts of him being a deadbeat father, suggesting that he and his offspring, which don’t follow him on any social media platform, fall into the “estranged” category.
