Brian McKnight refused to say ‘I love you’ to dying son Niko

Brian McKnight Jr. claims that his estranged dad, Brian McKnight, refused to say “I love you” to his son Niko before he died from cancer.

“One of the darkest and coldest and most disheartening memories of my life is the day my brother [Niko] 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,” Brian Jr. said during a recent interview with Marc Lamont Hill.

“Because I knew where my dad was. I told [Niko], ‘Dad is gone.’ All my brother wanted, needed, asked for was my father to tell him he loves him,” the “Marry Your Daughter” singer added.

“My father responds to my brother, ‘I can’t arbitrarily say that I love you.’ But this is the man that wanted to help him?”

Page Six has reached out to Brian for comment but did not immediately hear back.

The “Back at One” singer’s family issues surfaced in October 2023, when he announced on Instagram that he had legally changed his name to become a senior to his then-newborn son, Brian Kainoa Makoa Jr., whom he shares with wife Leilani Mendoza.

However, Brian was already a senior to his eldest son, Brian Jr.

The following year, the 17-time Grammy nominee, 56, said he didn’t claim his estranged biological kids because they were the “product of sin.”

“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],” he said during a Q&A session on Instagram at the time.

When a fan wrote that the musician disowning his children went “against God,” he replied: “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.”

Brian only claimed the son and two stepchildren he shared with Mendoza, writing in his Instagram bio that he was the “father of Julia, Jack, Kekoa Matteo & Brian Kainoa Makoa McKnight Jr.”

In January 2024, Brian’s son Niko, born Cole Nikolas McKnight, announced on Instagram that he had cancer.

The R&B singer — who shares sons Brian Jr. and Niko with ex-wife Julie McKnight; daughter Briana with ex Patricia Driver; and son Clyde with an unidentified woman — claimed he offered to help Niko with his cancer battle — but stopped once Julie intervened.

Brian said at the time that he and Mendoza were arranging for Niko and his wife to fly to their home. However, Julie, 53, allegedly made a “hostile” phone call to him, demanding he stop helping their son.

“So what are we doing? We’re adhering to her wishes because that’s what she wanted and we’re staying out of it,” the musician said.

In an exclusive statement to Page Six, Julie said: “This is, once again, a response to bait myself & my family into his false narrative. He is a liar.”

Niko succumbed to his battle with cancer in May.

Following the photographer’s death, a source close to the situation exclusively told Page Six that the “Anytime” singer had “not reached out to the family.”

“He did not contact or see Niko,” the insider told us.

While Brian did not make amends with Niko before his death, the hitmaker claimed he, his wife and their kids “flew home to Maui and had a private memorial remembering him, and all the good times.”

In October, Brian took to social media, claiming he had won more than $8 million in a defamation judgment that he filed against Julie because she didn’t appear in court.