Kailyn Lowry Reveals What Her Kids Think of Boyfriend Ike Knighton

Kailyn Lowry Reveals Why She Felt “Villainized” for Years Amid Co-Parenting DramaKailyn Lowry has found a source of calm within the chaos. Because while the Karma & Chaos host's life with seven kids and three podcasts remains stretched beyond its limits—she dubbed her latest project Crashing Out with Kail, after all—her boyfriend Isaac "Ike" Knighton rather easily found his place amid the pandemonium. "My kids love him," she raved in an exclusive interview with E! News. "So, he really just fit seamlessly." A shared love of sports helped Knighton easily bond with Elliott (Lowry's 16-year-old son with ex Jo Rivera), Lincoln (she shares the 12-year-old with former husband Javi Marroquin), Lux, 9, Creed, 6 (her sons with ex Chris Lopez), Rio, 4, and nearly 3-year-old twins Verse and Valley (with Lowry's ex-fiancé Elijah Scott). "But also," noted Lowry, who first connected with the 34-year-old back in 2009, "one of my sons, Creed, they call each other 'twin' and it's just the cutest thing." So, yes, acknowledged Lowry, "You would think seven kids is so chaotic that how could anyone take this on? But he fit right in." Which is why she's trying to make his position permanent. "I want to be a wife one day," Lowry, also 34, explained. "I let him know pretty early on that I'm not interested in, you know, five-plus years and no movement on our relationship. I think it was like, 'This is my timeline. I would like to invest two years. And if it's not gonna go anywhere beyond this two years and we're still dating, it's fine. Not everyone is on my timeline. But this is what I want." Having manifested a career that includes multiple businesses and millions of social media followers, the Teen Mom alum has some other dreams to pursue. "I want to have a husband," she stressed. "I want my kids to have a stepfather. I want to build with someone and actually have this life together." Kailyn Lowry/InstagramAnd with her and Knighton's second anniversary coming next spring... "I would," she replied when asked if she'd follow through on her two-year deadline. "And he knows that." It's not that a bare left hand is a firm dealbreaker. "If he came to me and was like, 'Hey, I hear you, but this is not something I'm ready for,' I would hear him out," she explained. "And then I would see how I feel about it and I would leave if ultimately that's the conclusion that we came to." But if she's being honest, "I just don't know that that's what's going to happen." Because if he wasn't interested in recreating her dream ring, "I would question why he's doing all of the other husband-type things," Lowry noted. "I would seriously be like, 'Are you OK?'" In other words, men who aren't interested in making a forever promise don't spend their days attending basketball games and soccer practices or taking on an active role in their girlfriend's burgeoning empire. "I can see why people would think it's hard," Lowry acknowledged of having Knighton join her professional team. But he brought with him years of experience behind the camera and a level-headedness that has helped her learn to separate business from pleasure. Having joined Lowry for her 21-date Fatherless Behavior Tour this past summer, "He's usually the one that keeps the balance," she explained of Knighton. "I sometimes get sassy and then he handles it very well. I'm the sassy one and he's the logical thinker that doesn't let things seep into the other." It's a dynamic viewers can see play out in Lowry's new vertical docuseries. "I feel like so much of my TV life has been portrayed as me sitting on the couch complaining about my kids' dads for 13, 14 years," she explained of taking on the weekly series, with new clips dropping on ShortVydz.com and the ShortVydz app through January. "This gave me the opportunity to really showcase who is Kail outside of Teen Mom, and when my kids' dads are not involved—this is who I really am."She's a CEO who's crafted an entire media empire from the reality TV gig she signed on for as a teen. And now she's ready to build a future with the man she simply knows is her forever. "I feel like it's cliché to say," Lowry acknowledged, "but when you meet someone, you pretty much know very quickly if this is somebody that you want to spend the rest of your life with or not." And in Knighton she's found someone who's funny, hard-working and fun to be around. "He's just a good human at his core," Lowry explained. "I've always known that and so when we got together in this way, I was like, 'This is the person.'" Bottom line, she continued, Knighton "inspires me to be a better person and handle things better, and so I really love that about him." As Lowry prepared to add another branch to her family tree, check out the brood she's grown thus far. Kailyn Lowry/InstagramElliottKailyn Lowry was just 17 when she and high school boyfriend Jo Rivera welcomed their eldest son, Isaac Elliott Rivera, on Jan. 18, 2010. And though they split a year later, the exes have settled into a comfortable co-parenting arrangement. "We’ve come a long way since we were 18," Kailyn wrote on X after attending Jo and now-wife Vee Rivera's 2018 wedding. "I couldn’t ask for a better stepmom." As for her oldest son, "We have literally grown up together, but in some ways he’s even more grown than I am," she wrote in an Instagram tribute on his 13th birthday. Describing the devoted Olivia Rodrigo fan, musician and basketball player as "thoughtful, brilliant, funny and at times a smartass," the Delaware State grad praised his caring heart. "I think what really inspires me about him is the way he challenges social norms," she wrote. "Because he is curious and open-minded, he can form his own thoughts and opinions." Elliott, who announced his intentions to go by his middle name on his mom's Barely Famous podcast in June 2025, while also coming out as gay, "accepts people for who they are and never how they’re 'supposed' to be," Kailyn wrote. "More people should be like him."Kailyn Lowry/InstagramLincolnLincoln Marshall Marroquin joined the squad on Nov. 16, 2013, roughly a year after the then-star of Teen Mom 2 wed his father Javi Marroquin. "Very much into sports," as Kailyn described the tween in a 2022 episode of her Barely Famous podcast, he spends a significant portion of his time bouncing between basketball and football games. He even had an NBA-themed bash for his 10th birthday, with a nod to his favorite player, Allen Iverson. No surprise, then, that he provided an assist when it came time to think up a name for his youngest brother. "Verse came from Iverson, which is the name that Lincoln recommended," Kailyn revealed in a February 2024 TikTok. "Obviously, it would be on his list because he's a huge basketball fan." And an all-star sibling. "To know Lincoln is to love him," she wrote in a 2022 birthday tribute. "Dedicated, smart, handsome and the best brother out there."Kailyn Lowry/InstagramLuxFootball, wrestling, Rubik's Cubes and Michael Jackson—these are a few of Lux Russell Lowry's favorite things. Kailyn's first child with ex-boyfriend Chris Lopez, Lux was born on Aug. 5, 2017. Though she and Chris would continue their on-and-off romance for several years, "Right now, we don't communicate at all," she revealed to E! News in 2020. "I'm hoping that it will get better with time but I don't have a big vision. I don't have anything negative to say. I hope for our kids that everything works itself out in whatever direction that may be." Perhaps everyone could benefit from being as open-minded as her little Luxedo. "I love his willingness to try anything," she raved in an August 2026 tribute for his ninth birthday, "& how much he loves all his siblings." Kailyn Lowry/InstagramCreedAhead of Creed Romello Lowry-Lopez's July 30, 2020 arrival, Kailyn admitted to wrestling with a huge decision. "I hid the pregnancy for so long just because I didn't know what I was going to do—if I was going to keep the baby or not," she explained to E! News shortly after his birth. "That was really heavy for me and I really, really was struggling during that time." Though her relationship with Creed's dad Chris was notably rocky, one glance at his ultrasound sealed her decision. Much like his older siblings—"All three of them have asked to hold the baby and they're super loving on him," Kailyn told E!—the podcaster was smitten from day one. ' Dubbing him "the funniest, snuggliest, most handsome, most athletic, best son, little and big bro ever," Kailyn wrote on Instagram for his sixth birthday in July 2026, "I cannot want to take you to a falcons game this year & see all the things you will accomplish." Kailyn Lowry/InstagramRio"I wanted to be able to tell my own story on my own terms," Kailyn explained to People of keeping news of her fifth son Rio private until well after his November 2022 birth. Though she acknowledged he "had a little bit of a traumatic entrance into this world where he went to the NICU," due to breathing issues and fluid in his lungs, he's been "the best baby ever." First-time dad Elijah Scott deserved some props as well. "It's been very different from my other partners and my kids' other dads," she said of her then-fiancé. "He pours concrete, he gets down and dirty at work. But he's also just a real family man. He's very, very much connected with his own family, with our family, and so he's been a really good partner to me, and I feel like it's a really good match." Which is perhaps why her first few months with Rio inspired her to keep the party going. "Honestly, being a mom to four was harder than five, but I think that was because my number four is so spicy,” Kailyn revealed. “Number five is fantastic. He's the world's greatest baby like, if all my babies were like this, I'd have 10 more.” Cut to...Instagram/Kailyn LowryVerse and ValleyKailyn finally entered her girl mom era in late October 2023 with the arrival of Verse and Valley, her second and third children with Elijah. Valley (named for Kailyn's childhood growing up in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley), endured a longer NICU stay than her brother as she worked through some feeding issues. "I had never seen a baby in my life not wake up to eat or show signs of hunger," Kailyn explained on a January 2024 episode of Barely Famous. "She would just sleep through feedings. She never had any feeding cues and when I tried to feed her, she wouldn't take a bottle." And though Kailyn continued to worry about the twins' bond after their extended separation ("I'm trying to re-magnetize them to get them back to where they were") she's thrilled that her family is finally whole. "I feel grateful, thankful, fulfilled, happy, complete," she noted. "We're putting an addition on our house because of this. I feel so blessed. They are good babies."