Brian McKnight is talking out.
Lower than every week after his estranged son Cole Nikolas “Niko” McKnight died following a two-year cancer battle, the “Again At One” singer slammed his brother Claude McKnight for publicly asserting the 32-year-old’s passing.
“An enormous huge because of Claude McKnight’s tasteless and self-aggrandizing announcement on TikTok, that frankly was not his to make,” Brian shared within the voiceover of a June 3 Instagram Reel. “In my view, he inserted himself and used Niko’s demise as a possibility, as a substitute of letting him go with respect and dignity.”
The 55-year-old—who shares Niko, in addition to son Brian McKnight Jr., 35, with ex Julie McKnight—went on to criticize his estranged sibling for calling consideration to their alleged “household drama” with the tribute. As he put it, “It has as a substitute become a circus, a mockery of a life now misplaced, making this tragedy right into a actuality present kind drama.”
In any case, Brian—who can be dad to Brian Kainoa McKnight, 2, and Kekoa Matteo, who died in infancy in 2022, and stepkids Julia McPhee and Jack McPhee with spouse of eight years Leilani Mendoza, in addition to estranged daughter Brianna McKnight from a earlier relationship—stated he had flown to Maui and had a non-public memorial for Niko remembering “all the great instances” whereas all the things was “unfolding.”