{"id":44493,"date":"2025-04-23T18:17:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T18:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/44493\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T18:17:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T18:17:17","slug":"everything-we-learned-about-beyonces-upbringing-and-marriage-to-jay-z-from-her-mother-tina-knowles-explosive-memoir-matriarch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/44493\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything we learned about Beyonc\u00e9’s upbringing and marriage to Jay Z, from her mother Tina Knowles’ explosive memoir Matriarch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"STYLE\"<\/p>\n

Matriarch: A Memoir details Knowles\u2019 life from growing up on Galveston Island in Texas during segregation through to the present day as a businesswoman and mother to some of the most famous women on the planet.<\/p>\n

\u2018Fake pregnancy\u2019 fury<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Beyonc\u00e9 confirmed her pregnancy at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2011<\/p>\n

While Knowles ultimately respected Beyonc\u00e9’s wishes to not hit back at the press coverage of her eldest daughter\u2019s pregnancy with Blue Ivy, it\u2019s clear it was a challenge. Having suffered through multiple miscarriages, including one at 12 weeks, the family was cautiously delighted when Beyonc\u00e9 became pregnant in 2011. Knowles vowed to help her daughter keep it a secret, tailoring her dresses to hide her growing bump.<\/p>\n

Knowles was furious, then, when images of these dresses were used to fuel rumours in the press that Beyonc\u00e9 was \u201cfaking\u201d her pregnancy. \u201cThis sacred time, after such tragedy and pain, was marred by some of the stupidest shit I had ever seen, said Knowles. \u201cI wanted to curse some people out and scream at these losers to set the record straight\u201d. <\/p>\n

Beyonc\u00e9 counselled her mother to ignore \u201cthese ignorant people\u201d, but Knowles is clear that the headlines were part of a larger pattern of harassment against celebrities \u2014 and particularly galling giving their own foremother\u2019s struggles to keep their children during slavery. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a mother, these rumours make me feel helpless, unable to protect my children,\u201d she said. \u201cY\u2019all are not going to kill my children with this madness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Hurtful\u2019 lies over Destiny\u2019s Child<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kelly Rowland, left to right, Beyonce and Michelle Williams rose to fame in the girl band (Anthony Harvey\/PA)<\/p>\n

PA Archive<\/p>\n

Knowles was the stylist for Destiny\u2019s Child<\/a>, the girl group that propelled Beyonc\u00e9 and Rowland to stardom, while her ex-husband Mathew Knowles was their manager. That gave her a front row seat to the early lineup changes that sparked headlines when original members LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson departed after their 1999 hit album The Writing\u2019s On The Wall. <\/p>\n

\u201cBy that winter, sadly LeToya and LeTavia would no longer be with the group. Beyonc\u00e9 saw it as the end of a marriage of ten years and she began to grieve it as such,\u201d said Knowles.\u201cRumors and negative stories took hold, casting Beyonce as the daddy\u2019s girl who made demands, and people even ran with a lie that Kelly had only stayed because she was Mathew\u2019s biological child from an affair. It was all incredibly hurtful.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Michelle Williams auditioned to join the new line-up, Knowles flew her out volunteered her beauty expertise to give her a makeover \u2014 including persuading her to wax off her \u201cmoustache\u201d.<\/p>\n

Beyonc\u00e9 didn\u2019t always plan to go solo<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dangerously In Love, Beyonc\u00e9’s first solo album<\/p>\n

Columbia Records<\/p>\n

While she was undeniably the breakout star of Destiny\u2019s Child, Knowles insisted it wasn\u2019t her plan to launch a solo career from the get-go. \u201cPeople oftentimes say the goal was always for Beyonce to be solo, but if that were the case, she would have done that out of the gate. She loved being in a group,\u201d said Knowles.<\/p>\n

As proof, she said, Beyonce waited for Rowland to release Simply Deep before she released her first solo album Dangerously in Love. \u201cBeyonc\u00e9 pushed back her own album so her sister Kelly could take full advantage of the momentum of her own success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going toe-to-toe with Annie Leibovitz<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Annie Leibovitz, who shot Beyonc\u00e9 for the 2001 Vanity Fair cover<\/p>\n

Knowles styled Beyonc\u00e9 when she was on the cover of the Vanity Fair music issue in 2001. It was shot by the industry legend Annie Leibovitz<\/a>, although Knowles said she \u201cdid not know Leibovitz\u2019s history and portfolio\u201d at the time. <\/p>\n

What she did know was that nobody was putting Beyonc\u00e9’s hair in a bun. \u201cI worked as a model for a hot minute. I noticed that they never hired Black hairstylists so the crew at the show or the shoot didn\u2019t know what to do with Black hair. The solution was always \u2018put it in a bun\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Leibovitz asked for Beyonce\u2019s hair to be put in a bun, Knowles stood her ground and insisted Beyonce\u2019s wavy look stayed put.<\/p>\n

Jay-Z is the son she never had<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

Beyonc\u00e9’s relationship with Jay-Z<\/a>, which began when she was 18 and he was 30, regularly comes under scrutiny. There\u2019s the age gap, the affair allegations, and now the P-Diddy lawsuit<\/a>. But Knowles is clear that she approves of her daughter\u2019s husband. \u201cI\u2019ve never had the gift of a natural-born son, but God has given me my sons-in-law,\u201d she said, adding that \u201cJay is an example to his children\u201d.<\/p>\n

Knowles confirmed that Beyonc\u00e9 and Jay-Z started communicating on the phone after the Vanity Fair cover in 2001, becoming serious when her daughter was 21. Apparently, there was a rival for Beyonce\u2019s heart. \u201cThere was another guy in the industry talking to her, a friend who maybe wanted to be more,\u201d said Knowles. \u201cShe told me they were both coming to town at the same time.\u201d Knowles asked Beyonc\u00e9 who she preferred, which clarified the situation.<\/p>\n

Beyonc\u00e9’s wedding dress \u2014 and menu<\/p>\n

Beyonc\u00e9 and Jay-Z\u2019s 2008 wedding has largely remained a private affair, but Knowles did confirm and add a few details. She made her daughter\u2019s wedding dress herself from white silk as a surprise. The cut was mermaid style \u2014 Jay-Z\u2019s preference \u2014 and strapless as Beyonc\u00e9 favoured. White curtains were made to cover the walls and windows of the 25-foot-high ceilings of the New York home to help maintain secrecy. And Knowles cooked a menu of soul food alongside Jay-Z\u2019s grandmother.<\/p>\n

Solange\u2019s teen pregnancy<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mike Coppola\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Knowles also discusses the moment that her youngest daughter told her she was pregnant at 17. They were in a car on their way to the 2004 Grammy\u2019s where Beyonc\u00e9 would be performing and take home five awards for Dangerously in Love. Knowles said she was \u201cupset but not angry\u201d at the news. While she worried for Solange, she could also see that her daughter had experienced a lot of loss at a young age. Her uncle Johnny had died of AIDs, as had her child therapist, and her best friend Marsai had been killed in a drive-by shooting.<\/p>\n

There was a family row over Solange\u2019s decision to get married, which devolved into the pregnant teenager running away for two days and pawning her diamond jewelry. But they patched it up for the wedding, which was held at John Travolta\u2019s private resort on Grand Bahama.<\/p>\n

The Disney World incident<\/p>\n

One of the most shocking moments in the book is when Knowles recalls an early Destiny\u2019s Child concert at Disney World. The organisers gave their white labelmate Jessica Simpson the bigger dressing room, and when Beyonce threw a towel into the crowd of high schoolers the police were called and threatened to arrest Beyonc\u00e9 if she did it again, telling her \u201cyou could have caused a riot out there\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just that [Destiny\u2019s Child] were Black, it was that the fans were,\u201d said Knowles. When the teenagers took to the stage again, Knowles recalls, police officers stood onstage holding their handcuffs as a warning.<\/p>\n

Knowles ends her memoir on the bombshell of her very recent breast cancer diagnosis. But there is another previously unreported medical incident she relays that is truly horrendous.<\/p>\n

In 2004 she was frying fish while on the phone to Solange talking her daughter through how to cook a chicken in a bag. Knowles recalls she was laughing so hard she knocked the skillet over. Boiling oil burned through her Stella McCartney stretch jeans down to the bone. Not only was she in extreme agony, when the emergency services arrived they suspected her then-husband Mathew of hurting her. \u201cEven at a time like this we were suspect,\u201d she recalled. \u201cPresumed guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyonc\u00e9 is not a car person <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Beyonc\u00e9 buys cars, but only for her music videos<\/p>\n

Youtube.com<\/p>\n

People assume that Beyonc\u00e9 is a fan of cars because she often features classic models in her music videos. But that couldn\u2019t be further from the truth, says he mother. When she recieved her first paycheck of $86,000 from Columbia Records, she used $20,000 of it to buy a van for her church then purchased a a used silver Jaguar convertible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funny thing is Beyonc\u00e9 found she just is not a car person,\u201d said Knowles. \u201cThat Jag is still in storage somewhere, the last car she bought that wasn\u2019t some vintage thing for a video.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not much relatable about fame on this scale, but Beyonce and Solange\u2019s exasperation with their mother\u2019s social media usage feels very real. \u201cMy daughters didn\u2019t want me on social media because they were trying to protect me,\u201d said Knowles. \u201cThe were like, \u2018Mama, people are so mean on Instagram and they will tear you apart\u2019.\u201d Knowles said she was too old to let that bother her, but she did note she received an upsetting amount of hate on the platform when she announced her second divorce. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The cover of Tina Knowles\u2019 new book Matriarch <\/p>\n

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