Backstreet Boys to family men! Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, AJ McLean and Kevin Richardson have all become dads since they became boy band stars — and they love to share updates their little ones.
Littrell was the first member of the band to become a father, welcoming son Baylee with wife Leighanne Littrell in November 2002. Baylee has since become a singer himself, performing on Broadway and releasing an album called 770 Country in 2019.
“I’m just elated. I’m so proud of him,” Brian told HollywoodLife in June 2021 of his son’s musical talents. “He’s super inspiring to watch as he writes and he does music and performs and all of that stuff. He’s a great guitar player. He can play his little butt off. It’s great to watch.”
Baylee, for his part, said that watching his dad on tour partly inspired his own career in music. When he was a toddler, Baylee joined BSB on the road for their Never Gone tour, which ran from 2005 to 2006. “I can’t tell you how monumental it’s been to grow up and see my dad’s work, and not many people get to experience that,” he said in the same interview. “So, to see it and try and attempt it myself, it’s kind of mind-blowing, honestly.”
Littrell’s cousin Richardson was the next Boy to become a dad with the arrival of son Mason in July 2007. The Kentucky native had left the group one year earlier, so when he rejoined the band permanently in 2012, Mason was shocked to find out what his dad did for a living.
“He didn’t know his father was famous,” Littrell joked during an August 2013 interview with Larry King.
Richardson noted that having kids made it harder to go on tour for months at a time, but said that fatherhood has also helped inspire him to give music his all. “It motivates you to work harder,” he told the late CNN host. “You wanna provide for your family, you wanna set a good example.”
In June 2022, the band surprised fans when they brought most of their brood on stage for a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The kids joined their dads for a rendition of “No Place” from their 2019 album DNA. “It’s about family,” Richardson told the crowd of the song. “These are our babies. Everybody in here, we all grew up together. Y’all have families, we have families. Thank you all for being a part of the Backstreet family going on 29 years, almost 30 years.”
AJ McLean and his wife, Rochelle, share two daughters, Elliott, born in 2012, and Lyric, born in 2017. In March 2023, Us Weekly confirmed that AJ and Rochelle were calling it quits after 11 years of marriage to work on themselves. They noted in their joint statement that they hoped the split was temporary.
Keep scrolling for a guide to all of the Backstreet Boys’ kids.