Brian McKnight Jr. says his long-strained relationship with his father, singer Brian McKnight Sr., reached an unprecedented low following the death of his younger brother, Nico McKnight, who passed away in May from colon cancer. In a Patreon exclusive interview with Marc Lamont Hill released Dec. 3, McKnight Jr. and his mother, Julie McKnight, reflected on Brian Sr.’s relationship with Niko and how, even during his cancer battle, all Niko wanted was to hear “I love you” from his father, a wish he was denied, according to a clip from the interview shared on Hill’s Instagram page Wednesday.
“One of the darkest and coldest and most disheartening memories of my life is the day my brother calls me, sobbing with all he’s going through, looking death in the eye, to tell me I’m right about telling him not to call my father because I knew what was going to happen,” McKnight Jr. alleged. “Because I knew where my dad was. I told him, ‘Dad is gone.’ All my brother wanted, needed, asked for was my father to tell him he loves him. And My father responds to him, ‘I can’t arbitarily say that I love you.’”
The teaser also included Julie explaining the voicemail heard in Brian Sr.’s controversial Instagram video from October. In that post, Brian Sr. celebrated what he called an early win in his defamation case against Julie, a moment many fans found inappropriate, as it coincided with Oct. 16, Nico’s birthday. The video featured audio from a voicemail of Julie — whom he labeled “a liar” — telling him and his wife, Leilani McKnight, not to contact Niko, played strangely over footage of the singer clicking his heels mid-run.
Julie said the voicemail was sent in frustration, after witnessing how the Grammy winner allegedly mistreated Niko during his final days.
“Yes, people heard the voicemail, but they have no idea that as a mom standing in the room with my son on speaker with his wife and hearing how belittling his father talked to him,” she said. “The first comment out of his mouth was, ‘I don’t appreciate the way you’re treating my new family.’ Who gives a damn, man?”
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