Growing up, Brian McKnight was somewhat of an Orlando hometown hero, but I do not know why. His songs were really good, but not great. Maybe because I was never a huge fan of his work, or maybe my intuition told me that it was not genuine. This past week though, Black Twitter lost its collective fandom and sh-t when they found out that Brian is, essentially, a deadbeat dad.
What makes this even worse, because what can be worse than being a deadbeat parent, is he is seemingly great parent to your other stepchildren.
After doing some digging, my stomach churned even more at the blatant disrespect Brian McKnight seems to have shown towards the idea of at least not shading his won kids on social media, or in his case, his former family. McKnight’s first pinned post on Instagram is a message to his youngest son, Brian, who is also his youngest son named Brian—because apparently, he has two. But I guess his first one aged out and so he decided to start back at one. First, his bio only lists four children, Julia, Jack, Kekoa Matteo and Brian Kainoa Makoa, Julia and Jack are his stepchildren, Kekoa is the child Brian, and his current wife Leilani had who died in infancy, and Brian is the biological child whom they share.
Here are some of the sentences from that long, nasty ass caption. “Dear Baby Brian, Everytime I look at you and kiss on you, I’m feeling feelings that I did not know I could possess, an over abundance of love between a father and his legacy that cannot be measured.” I’m sorry but WHAT IN THE ENTIRE F-CK?!?!?!?!
How did you not feel that love previously?! Additionally, if you are going so hard for your stepchildren, how did you not feel that with them? He continues, “[y]ou see, I never was a sentimental man,” so, all those love songs you pinned were a lie? Like, I’m very confused, Brian. Make it make sense, BRIAN! He continues to write some heartfelt-esque bullsh-t and finishes the post by saying, “[y]ou are perfection my son! I’m so proud to give you my name…” I’m sorry, what?!?! Were you not proud the first go-round?
But wait, there’s more; a post from December of 2022 shows him gifting a car to his stepdaughter Julia. His caption reads, “[t]oday we celebrate you Jules on your birthday your mom and I couldn’t be prouder of you and I couldn’t ask for a better daughter than you!!! Happy Birthday to the best daughter ever! Love u a zillion.” Oh wow, oh wow, oh, wow. Brian has a biological daughter named Briana McKnight, she was fathered when he was married to his first wife, but she is not his first wife’s daughter. Brian claims that she was only conceived for financial reasons, which is odd because I thought she was only conceived because he stuck his raw meat into someone who was not his wife, but accountability and delusion are not good friends.
Brian McKnight was married for 13 years to his first wife, whom he clearly cheated on, and even faced a paternity suit from another woman who claimed he sired a child with her during that marriage. Now it came out that he was not the father of that child, but that does not mean he did not know that mother’s child “biblically,” I mean, clearly, being an aint-sh-t person is right up his alley. But let’s just say that even though the devil never needed advocacy that it was, in fact, a loveless marriage (as he claims, at least from his POV). Where did that filter over into his relationship with his children?
Brian has two biological sons from his first marriage and does not interact with either of them, Briana on the other hand, who was raised by someone else, also does not have a relationship with him, and he claims it stems from a dirty secret between her and her cousin, and that her family cut him off when he sent someone to investigate.
His daughter, on the other hand, claims that her father did not even acknowledge her birthdays for years, I’m assuming he hasn’t gifted her a new BMW as he did for his stepdaughter’s birthday, but I’m just speculating here. I’m not sure how a potentially harmful family secret is internet fodder, but more importantly, how that would keep you estranged from the daughter who says that she has reached out to you to no avail. Additionally, Brian’s children have reported that not only did he abandon them, but his grandchildren as well. Now, what did the grandbabies do to you, Brian?
No family is perfect, and in every family, there are at least two people who don’t speak, but acting as if three of your children don’t even exist is probably the reason that Brian never won a Grammy because God and the recording academy don’t like ugly. But I guess if you don’t like your original family, you can always start back at one.
