Wayne Brady Announces New Addition to the Family

Wayne Brady is a father again!

The game show host was just as surprised to learn the news as the rest of us, opening up about "shock[ing]" revelation on the premiere of his new Freeform reality show Wayne Brady: The Family Remix on Wednesday, July 24, and elaborating in a new interview with People published the following morning.

The 52-year-old semi-recently welcomed a son with his ex-girlfriend, Tina , whom he was with on and off throughout the start of the pandemic. Brady learned she was pregnant a few weeks after his grandmother Valerie's funeral, and, upon his birth, named the baby Val Henry .

At first, he recounted asking "the silly question" that he presumes "many men since the beginning of time have asked. 'How?'"

But he knew the answer and quickly moved past it, and, despite not living very close to his ex and their baby, makes sure they stay connected.

“I never want Val to grow up thinking that he should be ashamed or look back and go, ‘Oh, my dad didn't want me,’ or he was ashamed of me," he said. "Because I want him, in his own way, to know that I love him as much as I love Maile [his 21-year-old daughter, whom he shares with ex-wife Mandie Taketa ], who is of me and that I had a part in creating,” he added, acknowledging that he "had to do that work.”

So, he sees Val in person as often as possible and FaceTimes him every day. “I'm going to nurture him, and I'm going to let him flower and let him do his thing,” he said, opening up about his planned parenting style with the babe. “He will have boundaries, but he's never going to grow up feeling like he can't talk. To this day, I can recall when I know that I'm not supposed to speak. I can feel the tightness right here when I know that I'm supposed to just sit down and be quiet — and I don't want that for him.”

It's not entirely clear how old Val is at this point, though, when the premiere episode was filmed, he was six months old, per a recap from Us Weekly .

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