Tina Knowles has opened up about her secret cancer battle in a candid on-air interview.
The mom of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles, 71, told Gayle King during an appearance on CBS Mornings that she had recently been diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer.
Tina told the host that doctors found two tumors during a routine mammogram, which she was unable to get per her usual schedule due to a delay by the Covid-19 induced lockdowns. Watch a part of her conversation below…
Tina's surgery
Tina received a lumpectomy and was supported by her two daughters plus her niece Angela Beyince and her honorary daughter Kelly Rowland.
She confessed she was "nervous," and that her girls all showed up to cheer her on and inundated her with social media clips to keep her spirits up, including the "very demure" meme. "They started just joking with me," she said.
Surgical complications
Tina also spoke about a serious complication emerging from her surgery, resulting in a painful neck infection that occurred at the worst possible time.
© Getty ImagesLast October, just as she was hit by the infection, she was due to attend Glamour's Women of the Year awards, where she was being honored with one of the night's biggest prizes. Despite her daughters telling her to sit the night out, Tina insisted on being there.
"Beyoncé just kept saying, 'You know, mama, you're just not yourself. Your health is more important,' and I said, 'This is so important to me because of what I just went through.'"
The stylist, whose debut memoir Matriarch was released today, teared up as she spoke passionately about wanting to finally be in the spotlight for her work and be present to accept her prize after spending decades behind-the-scenes hyping up the rest of her family.
© Instagram"A lot of my life, I just refused to be recognized," she said while choking up. "I would never take an award, I would never want the attention to me. And this was my saying, 'I deserve this'. And I'm going to get there." Her girls were there to support her through tears.
Feeling "anxiety"
Tina made a live appearance on the show as well, joined by Oprah Winfrey, who selected Matriarch as her book club pick, where she spoke further about the decision to go public with her diagnosis and other facets of her life.
© Getty Images"It's a wonderful day, I mean, look what I'm starting off doing," she enthused. "But I still have a little anxiety, because you're just putting it out into the world, being really scrutinized."
When the Knowles matriarch was asked how she dealt with sharing intimate details about her notoriously private family, she revealed that instead of telling them what she'd written, she just gave them each their own sections of the memoir, while joking also about the initial draft of the book being 1000 pages long.
© Instagram"I tried really hard to tell the story without telling other people's stories," she continued. "I hope people out there will be inspired by some of the stories of the things that I've overcome."
