Tina Knowles is opening up about her secret breast cancer battle. The 71-year-old details her health scare in an emotional new memoir, Matriarch, released on Tuesday. The mother of Beyonce and Solange Knowles confessed in a recent appearance on CBS Mornings that she missed getting her scheduled mammogram during the COVID-19 pandemic. After her appointment was cancelled, she did not reschedule it until last year, when she received her stage 1 cancer diagnosis.
Tina Knowles gets candid about her secret breast cancer battle
“My doctor told me I had breast cancer. A small tumor in my left breast that was cancerous; the larger tumor in my right breast was benign, but it would also have to go,” Knowles wrote in her memoir, per Us Weekly. “She said I was Stage 1A, assuring me my prognosis was good. The next step was to talk to an oncologist and a breast surgeon,” the fashion designer added.
Knowles further wrote, “I sat there in a daze, rubbing my neck. I immediately thought of my father, all those times taking him to chemo and how much cancer took from him. I had been through all of this stuff in life getting to be 70 years old, and now I’m gonna get cancer?”
During Tuesday’s interview, Knowles told host Gayle King that she was in “disbelief” as “I’ve always tried to take care of myself.” Recalling her emotions in the moments before her surgery, she said, “I was nervous.”
In August 2024, she underwent a lumpectomy to remove the cancerous tumour. While she became cancer-free, she developed a serious infection, which forced her to undergo surgery for a second time in September. It was when her eldest daughter put her health first.
“She insisted I put her on speaker during my consult in the exam room with the infectious disease specialist,” Knowles wrote of Beyonce, adding, “The doctor was impressed with her questions; I was impressed by her care.” However, she is now “cancer-free” and is “doing great,” according to a new interview with People.
Knowles told the outlet that she feels “incredibly blessed that God allowed me to find it early.” She also shared that she wants her story to “give people hope.” “What scares me now is not making the best of every day that I have left in this life,” she added.
