A source exclusively tells Page Six that Brian McKnight did not contact his son, Niko, before or after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2024.
Niko died on Thursday, May 29, after a battle with stage 4 cancer. He was 32. McKnight confirmed Niko’s death in a post on Instagram.
A source close to the family denied McKnight’s claim that he tried to help his son.
McKnight had a strained relationship with his 4 older children. But he said he and his wife, Leilani Mendoza, “jumped into action” when they learned Niko was diagnosed with cancer and he didn’t have insurance.
McKnight said he called Niko’s wife, Carla, and made arrangements to fly Niko to a cancer treatment center near his home. But a source tells Page Six that the “Back at One” singer “has not reached out to the family.”
The source says Niko “was surrounded by an abundance of love and support from those who truly mattered,” including his mother, Julie McKnight, his older brother, Brian McKnight Jr., and Niko’s wife, Carla.
McKnight shares sons Brian Jr. and Niko with ex-wife Julie; daughter Briana with ex Patricia Driver; and son Clyde with an unidentified woman.
In 2019, McKnight, 55, called his older kids “entitled”, “evil,” and “the product of sin.”
In a Q&A on Instagram in 2024, McKnight said, “In order to live a life that you love, you have to get rid of the evil and the negativity — even if that evil and negativity is related [to you].”
In October 2023, McKnight legally changed his name to become a senior to his son, Brian Kainoa Makoa Jr, born in 2023.
When Brian faced backlash from fans over disowning his older children, he responded, “1. God wasn’t talking about children that are the product of sin which these are 2. I didn’t raise them their mothers did. 3. Know the whole story before quoting the Bible. 4. Take your inaccurate negativity off my page and try being happy.”
Niko (pictured with his mom, Julie, and brother Brian Jr.) reacted to his father’s hateful words in a comment on the Shade Room’s Instagram blog in April 2024.
“I’m evil. That’s wild: The guy who used to make me clean his used condoms out his bathroom at 15 before Lisa got home is calling me evil Fashoooooo,” Niko wrote.
McKnight, who married Leilani Mendoza in 2017, now refers to his stepchildren and his toddler son as his only children. McKnight said his stepdaughter, Julia, was his “one and only daughter.”
