American singer Brian McKnight has been slammed for comments made about his biological children, who he called ‘evil’.
The Still singer, who was on the US Masked Dancer, has publicly disowned his children — Brian Jr., Niko, Briana, and Clyde — in a Q&A on Instagram.
In 2022, the 54-year-old welcomed his youngest child with wife Leilani Malia Mendoza, who also has two children from a previous marriage; Julia and Jack.
Brian posted about Julia’s graduation and called her his ‘only’ daughter, disowning his biological daughter Briana from a previous relationship.
Followers criticised this statement, with the Back At One singer doubling down as he responded to a fan named Carl Jackson who supported his statements.
‘I wanna big up my man right here, he gets it,’ Brian said in an Instagram video before denouncing his biological family.
He continued: ‘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].’
This didn’t land with fans as another user criticised him of ‘going against god’ while others slammed his ‘toxic positivity’.
Brian has built a positivity platform and was raised a Seventh-day Adventist, which is a Christian denomination.
Responding to this comment, he said: ‘God wasn’t talking about children that are the product of sin which these are.’
His comments were filled with people adding to criticism and ex-wife and mother of two of his children Julie McKnight even added her thoughts.
According to The Shade Room, without naming names she said: ‘The point of every negative situation, whether it’s an illness whether it’s a fool that you have to deal with because they keep entering your life when you are no longer giving anymore energy to it, is to only keep you down to where they thought they had you because they were the author of an extremely abusive situation emotionally, mentally.
‘And they’re no good at not being the centre of attention anymore. So when everybody pulls that away, it’s like a kid without candy who throws a tantrum…’
Julie, who is also a singer, was childhood sweethearts with Brian who she was married to from 1990 to 2003 and welcomed two children.
During their marriage he also fathered a daughter and a son with two other women, all of whom he has since disowned.
Two years ago his wife gave birth to their son, who was named Brian Kainoa Makoa Jr, despite the fact his oldest son was already Brian Jr.
Since the backlash, the singer has limited his Instagram comments and more negative responses have vanished from the post.
He saw success in the 90s with first hit song, Love Is featuring Vanessa Williams, which was recorded for the Beverly Hills 90210 soundtrack.
Overall Brian has 16 Grammy nominations and his song Back at One peaked at number two on the Billboard 100 in 1997.
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