Beyoncé‘s mother, Tina Knowles, is opening up about a breast cancer battle she underwent in 2024.
Knowles, who is 71 years old, says doctors discovered Stage 1 cancer in her left breast last July, according to People. She underwent surgery to remove the tumor and also had a breast reduction.
Throughout her ordeal, she says that Beyoncé and her other pop star daughter, Solange, were pillars of support.
Beyoncé “took it well, staying positive, and I could already feel her mind racing, focusing on this as a task to tackle with precision,” Knowles recounts.
In addition to support from her daughters, she says she also felt support from her niece Angie Beyince and former Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland.
“My girls became my team,” Knowles remembers.
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Fortunately, early detection and prompt action paid off.
“I’m doing great,” the singer’s mom says. “Cancer-free and incredibly blessed that God allowed me to find it early.”
Knowles recounts her bout with breast cancer in her new memoir Matriarch, and she says she wrestled with the decision about whether or not to open up about her illness. But ultimately, she says she hopes her candor will inspire other women to stay on top of their routine screenings — especially because she herself missed a mammogram that could have detected her cancer earlier.
“I forgot that I didn’t go to get my test two years before I thought I had,” she continues. “Because COVID came and they called me and canceled 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 also wants to remind people that “you can go through that and still be fly,” and offer hope for what life can look like after a bout with cancer.
“I’m healthier, eating better, I lost weight,” she adds.
“I want to give people hope,” she goes on to say. “What scares me now is not making the best of every day that I have left in this life.”
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Gallery Credit: Sterling Whitaker
