Does the Jonas Brothers’ mom have a favorite Jonas Brother? They think so

Does the Jonas Brothers' mom have a favorite Jonas brother?

Depends on who you ask.

“I think they all think Nick’s the favorite,” Denise Jonas told Sheinelle Jones on TODAY. “But I really don’t have a favorite. I mean, there are different things for different ones.”

In a wide-ranging interview with Sheinelle that aired Aug. 21, the mother of Kevin, Joe, Nick and Franklin Jonas spoke about raising the boys who became a global music phenomenon, sensing at a young age that they had star potential, and appreciating the women her sons have married.

Kevin Jonas, 35, married his wife Danielle Jonas in 2009, followed by Nick Jonas, 30, tying the knot with actor Priyanka Chopra in 2018 and Joe Jonas, 34, marrying "Game of Thrones" star Sophie Turner in 2019.

"It feels absolutely wonderful because, as a mom, I’ve raised you this way and how are you gonna find someone that’s equal to you?" Denise Jonas said about her daughters-in-law. "I could not be more blessed. And they’ve given us five beautiful granddaughters."

As her sons develop their own parenting styles with their young children, she remembered back to how she raised them.

"I tended to be strict," she said. "Early on, my husband and I felt like, “We’re not just raising kids. We’re raising adults. And we want to raise them with the integrity and the moral values that we have.'"

Denise Jonas specifically did not want to have daughters because she "thought it would be fun to have boys."

She recalled plenty of laughter and "things breaking" when her sons were growing up, and their precocious musical talents were on display very early.

"My husband is the real musician, a music lover," she said. "He recognized that at an early age in Nicholas specifically. He was three and he was singing a song, he hit a wrong note, and he backed up and he sang it correctly. At three. And my husband was like, 'This one is beyond me.'"

Her three sons who make up the Jonas Brothers — Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas — were signed by a manager and were quickly doing commercials.

"It was 'what more can we accomplish,' never thinking what would happen would happen," Denise Jonas said.

She admittedly struggled with her role in their lives as the band's popularity surged.

"When we toured with them, I realized my role was being taken now by people that we paid," Denise Jonas said. "There’s a catering company that cooks the meals and there’s someone who dresses them, does their laundry, irons everything. And it’s like, 'OK. What do I do?' It was tough."

The Jonas Brothers are in the midst of a 90-date tour in which they play five of their albums in one night. They have put out six successful albums over nearly 20 years and racked up more than 13 billion streams globally.

The band is greeted by screaming girls at every show they play.

"It really fills my heart with joy," Denise Jonas said. "I remember being that girl. I want them to feel that way for my kid.”

While there have been a succession of euphoric moments along the way, one difficult time came when Nick Jonas was diagnosed with diabetes at 13.

"First you feel guilt. You go through this period of you as a parent thinking, 'What did I do to my child?'" she said. "And then you have anger that this happened. And then you feel sorrow and grief because you’ve lost a part of your child. And you know that it’s something you’re going to deal with. It was tough."

Those trying times have paled in comparison to the highs of the Jonas Brothers' success along the way. Sheinelle asked Denise Jonas if she had a favorite moment.

"The great response of their fans loving them," she said. "But also the gift they’re giving the people with what they were created to do."

This article was originally published on TODAY.com