Family took center stage at the 2026 BET Awards, where both T.I. and Jamie Foxx shared the spotlight with their children during Sunday night's ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

T.I. opened the show, running through hits including "Top Back" and "Let 'Em Know." For the latter, his son King Harris, 21, took the driver's seat of a vehicle onstage as part of the performance. The appearance came just days after T.I. released his twelfth studio album, “Kill the King,” which had been billed as his final project, though reports suggest that may not actually be the case.

Foxx brought his own family moment to the stage as well, sitting at the piano while his 17-year-old daughter, Anelise Bishop, played guitar to introduce Kehlani's live performance of "Folded." The pairing carried extra weight given what Anelise's guitar playing has meant to her father since his 2023 health scare. Foxx suffered a brain bleed that led to a hemorrhagic stroke that year, and he's previously credited his daughter's music with helping his recovery.

"They said when she was playing, my vitals went down," Foxx said on his 2024 Netflix special “What Had Happened Was.”

 "The nurses at the nurses station were baffled. Like, 'Wow what did they give him?' They rushed into the room and she said, 'Ssh. I got him'… Do you know what I found out? That God was in that guitar. That's my spiritual defibrillator."

Foxx also has another daughter, Corinne, 32, and he is expecting a third child.

Family ties extended elsewhere in the show, too: Ms. Lauryn Hill, honored with BET's inaugural Living Legend Icon Award, received a musical tribute from her children Zion Marley, YG Marley, and Selah Marley, which was so emotionally moving that Hill couldn’t help but stand in awe. Hill’s kids were joined by superstars Lizzo, Doja Cat, Doechii, Tierra Whack, and others. 

The BET Awards were most certainly a family affair this year.