Brian McKnight has social media buzzing after he shared several throwbacks of his children with his first wife, Julie McKnight. McKnight was dragged on social media for giving the name Brian to his infant son with his current wife despite already having a son named after him, Brian McKnight Jr.
McKnight also shares another son, Niko McKnight, with his ex-wife, as well as a daughter, Briana McKnight, from a previous relationship. He also has a son named Clyde McKnight from a previous relationship. The “One Last Cry” singer and his wife Leilani McKnight, announced that they’d welcomed another son in January. He was accused of disowning his other children due to the language of the announcement.
“Dear Baby Brian,” he wrote. “Everytime I look at you and kiss on you I’m feeling feelings that I did not know I could possess, an overabundance of love between a father and his legacy that cannot be measured.”
He went on to call his youngest bundle of joy “his true heir” and was promptly dragged as disowning his previous children. Critics also claimed he treats his stepchildren, Jack and Julia, better than his biological children, and his Instagram profile only mentions his children and step-children with Leilani. The couple lost another son, Kekoa Matteo, as an infant.
McKnight took to Instagram on May 5 to note that a “false narrative” about him was trending and there always have been pictures of his biological children on the platform, and they’re being ignored. It did not go well.
“Not sure how these posts that have been sitting here this whole time were left out of the false narrative that is trending. Abandonment? There’s always more to every story. Stay tuned.”
Fans reacted to a post shared by The Shade Room, and they did not buy what McKnight was selling.
“Explain why you named your new son Jr, when you have a son that’s a Jr already,” wrote one.
“Baby, these old. Where are the 2020-2023 pictures, sir?”
“So we going to ignore the fact that the majority of his receipts are from HIS WIFE’S PAGE? Brian please start back at 1 and make this make sense.”
“But in your bio, you only mention your step kids and your kids with your current wife. Stop playing with us.”
McKnight denied being a deadbeat dad back in 2019 on video.
“I’ve been there for my children every step of the way,” he said while noting his other sons are grown. “I’ve never missed a day of child support. I’ve never done anything adverse to my children whatsoever. I’ve always been there.”
He went on to say that he was teaching them tough love and paid their expenses for two years after they moved out on their own. “I’m not abandoning them, we are estranged,” said McKnight.
McKnight also said his son Brian Jr. broke into his home and put x’s in the eyes of his wedding photos with Leilani.
