Kandi Burruss posted a poignant tribute to celebrate the birthday of her brother Patrick, who died at the young age of 22 back in 1991. Kandi was just a young teenager at the time.
Kandi departed from Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” in 2024 after spending over a decade as one of the most popular members of the cast. She wrote in her emotional message to her brother, “Happy heavenly birthday to my brother Patrick! It’s your day & will always be! I love you always & forever!” The “No Scrubs” songwriter added a heart emoji along with cake and confetti.
She accompanied her message with a set of photos. The first snap is a closeup of Patrick’s face, while the second shows him in a candid shot with their mother, Joyce, as she chats on an old-school corded telephone.
The third pic shows Kandi and Patrick as children standing side by side in formal clothes, and the last shot is a joyful Christmas morning scene where Kandi sits on a blue bicycle and Patrick happily holds a new basketball.
Fans pointed out how Kandi as a child looked just like her youngest child, 6-year-old Blaze. The multitalented singer shares Blaze and her son Ace, 10, with her ex-husband Todd Tucker. She filed for divorce from Todd a few days before Thanksgiving 2025, and the split was finalized in March.
What Happened to Kandi Burruss’ Brother Patrick?
Patrick was tragically killed in a car accident in Mexico back in June 1991. During her 2017 reality miniseries “Xscape: Still Kickin’ It,” Kandi discussed the incident. “It was devastating to me,” Bravo says Kandi recalled on the show.
“He got along with everybody, and even when there was drama, he was able to get us all on the same page. If my brother had not passed away, we probably would have lasted longer as a group than we did.”
Kandi Lost Her Former Fiancé A.J. in 2009
Patrick is not the only person in Kandi’s life she has lost to a tragedy. Her former fiancé, A.J. Jewell, died during an altercation in October 2009 at 34. The on-off pair had split up that summer.
“That day I had talked to him on the phone like a couple of hours before I got the call that he was in the hospital,” Kandi revealed on the season 2 “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” reunion, which aired weeks after A.J.’s death.
She went on, “He was stressed out about the club that he was trying to buy into, so I knew he was stressed about a lot of things. But I wasn’t there when it happened. But I was just told that he had got into a fight with the manager at the club. You know, they were having issues or whatever and I guess it just kinda boiled over.”
Kandi said she still didn’t now the exact cause of death. Cops originally suspected blunt force head trauma, before attributing the death to a complication of A.J.’s rare sickle cell condition. The other person involved in the altercation was charged with manslaughter, but those charges were later dropped.
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Kandi Burruss Honors Her Late Sibling In Emotional Birthday Post: ‘Love You Always’