Singer and songwriter Brian McKnight maintains that the children he shares with his first wife, Julie McKnight, were born out of ‘sin.’
In an interview with podcaster Anton Daniels, McKnight opened up about his marriage of 13 years with Julie. The former couple, who married in 1990, share two sons, Brian Jr. and Niko.
He shared that his first marriage happened under religious pressure and that the breakdown of the family was the result of manipulation, not abandonment.
The “Back at One” singer, who is currently married to Leilani Malia Mendoza, explained that Julie was a freshmen in college and he, a sophomore when they began dating. He added that she became pregnant the following year and told him she planned to have an abortion. Brian said that because of how young they were, he supported her decision at the time.
“She tells me she’s pregnant and that she’s going to get an abortion, right? I’m like, ‘Yeah, we should probably do that. I mean, you’re 18. I’m 20.’ I’m just about to start this whole thing, you know? Maybe this is the route we need to go. And she agrees. And we have this whole thing. She goes by herself.”
However, as he signed his record deal, Julie told him that she had not gone through with the abortion. Brian revealed that he had not expected this, claiming that Julie had told him she had an abortion in high school, which made him believe she would follow through with the decision. The couple eventually married and moved to California.
He shared that he and Julie’s family “are two prominent families in the black Adventist church.”
“I honored my mother and I tried to do the right thing with a woman that I hadn’t even known a year yet,” he said. “We got married in September. Baby in November.”
He also said the marriage was never compatible. “I was never in love with their mother,” McKnight claimed. “They weren’t made from love to begin with.”
“I said this before, and people got so mad. This obligation just because you lay with somebody it’s sort of an 18-year sentence of some kind, or beyond that, because it’s forever. There’s resentment there […] but at the same time you have these children.”
McKnight explained that he and Julie separated four times before ultimately divorcing in 2003. He said the only reason they stayed together as long as they did was because of their sons. “The kids were the thing that kept us together as long as we were,” he told Daniels.
He added that he thinks his on-and-off relationship with Julie definitely affected their kids. He believes that if they “separated for good,” certain dynamics would’ve been better.