Singer-songwriter Brian McKnight has built a career devoted to crafting the emotional soundtracks of countless fans’ lives. However, the online mistreatment of his eldest children, whom he fathered with Black women, has rubbed many fans the wrong way, to the point they’ve started to think twice about attending the singer’s concerts until he makes things right. While they wait, footage of McKnight and his sons have resurfaced, showing the family in happier times and displaying what could have been.
The recently resurfaced videos showcased McKnight performing his timeless songs alongside his eldest sons, Brian Jr. and Niko McKnight, proving that he had love for them at one time.
The youngster’s voices, backed by their father’s vocal prowess, display the undeniable imprint of the McKnight musical legacy of the next generation.
In addition to the perfect melding of their voices, it seems that the father really loved his sons and was proud that they shared the singing gene that made him and his brother Claude V. McKnight III, form the 10-time Grammy-winning group Take 6.
Initially posted 13 years ago on YouTube, one video shows the father-sons trio singing Brian Sr.’s hit song “6, 8, 12.”
McKnight throws the lead to his junior, who sings the house down. At one point, after BMJ went off into a riff, Niko snickered, “That’s your boy,” and the father instantly played up the moment and joked with the crowd, “When you give a negro an inch …” teasing his oldest son about how well he just went off.
In another video, posted 11 years ago, McKnight stands between his two sons as they perform “The Star Spangled Banner” in an arrangement that highlights all three tenors’ melodious voices.
A third video features audio from a 2011 interview he sat for with the “You Know I Got Soul” podcast, where Brian McKnight affectionately talks about his sons.
When asked about his favorite collaborations in his career, he said it was working with his two boys.
“You know, on this record, I do a duet with my oldest son, and it’s very difficult for people to distinguish who’s who,” he said. “And that’s fun for me to be able to work with these guys. This whole record I produced with them, with my two sons and to work with them and to see if they get their take on things and to have them finish things that I start has been a great process.”
At the time, McKnight said this was one of his “favorite periods” of his life.
Over the past decade, things have changed drastically.
McKnight has assumed a new family with his new wife, Dr. Leilani Malia Mendoza.
The devoted Seventh-Day Adventist now believes that his older three children, born out of wedlock, were products of sin.
He asserts his stepdaughter as his only daughter, disavowing any connection with his biological daughter, Briana, 21. He alleges that Briana’s mother only had her to get money from him.
On social media, the “Anytime” singer, who legally changed his name to honor his wife’s Polynesian heritage, asserts that he at one time tried to fulfill his paternal duties to Briana, recounting an incident where he called authorities because he thought she was being sexually abused by a relative.
According to McKnight, he gave up because Briana’s mother blocked him on social media and obstructed his interactions with the then-teen.
Niko, the middle son of the “One Last Cry” chart-topper, is not shy about sharing what a nasty man he believes his father is.
He said on social media that his dad would make him “clean his used condoms out his bathroom” when he was 15 before his dad’s partner got home. He also said that McKnight would forge their signatures on documents.
One of the most low-down things Niko has shared with the public, a far cry from the tender singing videos, is his claim that when he was battling cancer, his father was nowhere around.
“When I was about to die in the hospital from complications from my cancer, I just wanted to bury the hatchet and hear him say he loves me,” Niko tweeted. “He told me he couldn’t arbitrarily tell me he loves me. Still cuts so deep.”
Niko, now a 28-year-old photographer, has been estranged from his father for the past six years.
Brian, Jr., aged 34, has also spent much of the past decade at odds with his famous father despite carving out his own path as a singer. He released a project titled “The Collection” in 2023.
The singer currently acknowledges three children: stepchildren Julia McPhee, Jack McPhee, as well as Brian Kainoa Makoa McKnight. These children are from his marriage to Mendoza in 2017. Although Julia and Jack are Mendoza’s children from a previous relationship, McKnight has fully embraced them as his own.
Sadly, the couple experienced the loss of another son named Kekoa McKnight due to a miscarriage.
