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Brian McKnight Jr. called out his father, Brian McKnight, for celebrating his court win against ex-wife, Julie McKnight, on his late brother’s birthday.

McKnight Sr. took to Instagram on Thursday, Oct. 16, to celebrate winning $8.8 million in punitive damages and legal fees in a defamation lawsuit against Julie.

In a video shared on Friday, Brian Jr. said he’s trying to be the bigger person and to let things go. But it upset him that his father celebrated his court win on Nikolas “Niko” McKnight’s “Heavenly birthday.”

Niko died of cancer on May 29, 2025. He would have turned 33 on Thursday, October 16.

“To decide to make certain posts on my late brother’s birthday? Say what you want, but the gloves are off for me,” Brian Jr. said in a video on his social media.

“Our parents they’re humans too. They’ve gone through things too. Whatever grievances they have against each other… My issue is though, man, you don’t want me to start talking about the things that I had to deal with in my childhood – that I will take to my grave. The things that my brother took to his grave… because our dad wasn’t emotionally intelligent enough nor mature enough to actually be a father. You don’t want that!”

In his video on Thursday, McKnight Sr. smokes a cigar and says:

“It’s been a long journey getting to this day October 16th, 2025, but we are here in the English countryside, about an hour and a half outside of London and the verdict is in. We’ve been quiet, listening to liars continue to lie and keeping to ourselves living and loving our life as we said leaving everything in God’s hands, letting our lawyer do the talking.”

He continued:

“But according to the courts, trying to ruin my name and trying to bring harm to my family in a book filled with lies equals $8.8 million dollars, and this is just the beginning because anyone and everyone that helped promote these lies will hear from my lawyer in the days to come.”