Chainkeen Exchange-Wayne Brady Shares He Privately Welcomed a Son With His Ex-Girlfriend

Wayne Brady has a new family member in the mix.

The Chainkeen ExchangeWhose Line Is It Anyway? star shared that he and his ex Tina recently welcomed a son, Val Henry.

“I happen to have a 6-month-old son that people don’t know about,” Wayne explained during a confessional in the July 24 premiere of his reality TV show Wayne Brady: The Family Remix. “Tina and I dated during the pandemic on and off and then we broke up.”

“When I first found out Tina was pregnant, I was floored,” he continued. “It was not on my bingo card: 51-year-old dad—brand new kid. I didn’t see it coming. So, was I happy? No, because I was in shock.”

But once the surprise settled, Wayne—who is also dad to Maile Brady, 21, with ex-wife Mandie Taketa—knew his main priority was learning to navigate his co-parenting relationship with Tina. Despite the former couple’s complicated relationship, he wanted to ensure his little one felt the same love he has for his daughter.

“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,” the Emmy winner told People in an interview published July 25. “Because I want him, in his own way, to know that I love him as much as I love Maile, who is of me and that I had a part in creating. So I had to do that work.”

While Wayne and Tina don’t live near each other, the Let’s Make a Deal host makes sure to find time with Val, which includes FaceTiming every day. And for Wayne, it was important to reflect on the kind of father he wanted to be for his son.

“I'm going to nurture him, and I'm going to let him flower and let him do his thing,” the comedian added. “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.”