Beyonce’s mum, Tina Knowles, opens up about her breast cancer diagnosis

Tina Knowles (pic) is spreading the word about the need for women to get their scheduled mammogram every year.

In a new interview with People, the mother of global megastar Beyonce, 43, and singer Solange, 38, revealed her private battle with breast cancer in 2024. This is the first time she’s opened up publicly about her life-changing ordeal.

“It’s important not to slack on your mammograms,” the author of new memoir Matriarch told People. Knowles, 71, said doctors discovered Stage 1 cancer in her left breast last July. She was told the news right after she and Beyonce launched their award-winning haircare line, Cecred.

“I struggled with whether I would share that journey [in the book] because I’m very private. But I decided to share it because I think it’s a lot of lessons in it for other women,” she said. “And I think as women, sometimes we get so busy and we get so wrapped up and running around, but you must go get your test. Because if I had not gotten my test early, I mean, I shudder to think what could have happened to me.”

Knowles shared how her superstar daughters took the unsettling news, writing that Beyonce, “took it well, staying positive, and I could already feel her mind racing, focusing on this as a task to tackle with precision” Solange, meanwhile, told her “Mum, we are going to take care of this.” With the addition of “bonus daughters” — Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland and niece Angie Beyince — she wrote, “My girls became my team.”

Knowles then underwent surgery to remove the tumour and had a breast reduction.

In this case, early detection and the tumour’s removal fortunately paid off and might have very well saved her life.

“I’m doing great,” Knowles told People. “Cancer-free and incredibly blessed that God allowed me to find it early.”

“I’m healthier, eating better, I lost weight,” she added.

In the memoir, Knowles discussed how she missed scheduling her regularly annual mammogram that one time. Had she not remembered to schedule, her story would’ve been totally different.

“I forgot that I didn’t go to get my test two years before I thought I had,” she continued. “Because Covid came and they called me and cancelled me and they said, ‘We’ll call you when we start testing again.’ And I just thought I had done it. So you cannot play around with that.”

Knowles said wants women to get to their screenings on time and also wants others to know that a cancer diagnosis is not the end of life, writing, “you can go through that and still be fly.”

“I want to give people hope,” Knowles said. “What scares me now is not making the best of every day that I have left in this life.” – pennlive.com/Tribune News Service