Tina Knowles Shares How Beyoncé Supported Her During Breast Cancer Surgery
Klaudia//April 22, 2025
Tina Knowles had her girls by her side during her most challenging moment.
The Matriarch author recently shared that she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer and revealed her daughters Beyoncé and Solange Knowles, plus Beyonce’s longtime bandmate Kelly Rowland and niece Angie Beyincé had the perfect remedy for taking away the nerves before she went into surgery last year.
Spoiler alert: It was very demure, very mindful.
“I was nervous, and they just started joking with me and Solange pulls up this video of this young trans woman and she’s saying, ‘I’m very demure and intentional’” Tina, 71, said during an April 22 CBS Mornings interview about watching Jools Lebron’s viral video. “And we’re just laughing at it. And she’s showing me this. And we just look at it right before the surgery. I’m just laughing, and I get out of my head.”
“And I say, ‘I’m so happy that y’all are here.’”
In addition to the video, Tina said that her family was in perfect harmony about how to lift her spirits.
“And I thought about the song ‘Walk With Me’ that they used to sing all the time. Michelle [Williams] wasn’t there but Solange filled in, Angie sung,” Tina detailed. “And they sang ‘Walk with Me.’ It’s about God walking with you into something and protecting you. They sung that song and I went in there feeling just like God has got me.”
Following the surgery—which was a lumpectomy to remove the cancer from her left breast—Tina revealed that she suffered an infection that almost caused her to miss the October Glamour Women of the Year Awards after she was celebrated on the cover alongside fellow superstar moms Maggie Baird, Donna Kelce and Mandy Teefey.
And while Beyoncé encouraged her to stay home, Tina shared that she wanted to be there to celebrate her latest accomplishment.
“’Mama, you’re not yourself,’” Tina recalled Beyonce saying. “And so, she was like, ‘Your health is more important. Don’t go.’” However, noted Tina, “A lot of my life, I just refused to be recognized. I would never take an award. I would never want the attention to me, and this was my saying, ‘I deserve this.’”
With Beyoncé, Solange and Kelly in the audience, Tina used her speech at the event to thank them personally, despite the public not knowing the full weight of their support.
“That’s why when I said, you know, with them, I could get through anything,” she said. “Nobody knew what I was talking about.”
The Matriarch author recently shared that she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer and revealed her daughters Beyoncé and Solange Knowles, plus Beyonce’s longtime bandmate Kelly Rowland and niece Angie Beyincé had the perfect remedy for taking away the nerves before she went into surgery last year.
Spoiler alert: It was very demure, very mindful.
“I was nervous, and they just started joking with me and Solange pulls up this video of this young trans woman and she’s saying, ‘I’m very demure and intentional’” Tina, 71, said during an April 22 CBS Mornings interview about watching Jools Lebron’s viral video. “And we’re just laughing at it. And she’s showing me this. And we just look at it right before the surgery. I’m just laughing, and I get out of my head.”
“And I say, ‘I’m so happy that y’all are here.’”
In addition to the video, Tina said that her family was in perfect harmony about how to lift her spirits.
“And I thought about the song ‘Walk With Me’ that they used to sing all the time. Michelle [Williams] wasn’t there but Solange filled in, Angie sung,” Tina detailed. “And they sang ‘Walk with Me.’ It’s about God walking with you into something and protecting you. They sung that song and I went in there feeling just like God has got me.”
Following the surgery—which was a lumpectomy to remove the cancer from her left breast—Tina revealed that she suffered an infection that almost caused her to miss the October Glamour Women of the Year Awards after she was celebrated on the cover alongside fellow superstar moms Maggie Baird, Donna Kelce and Mandy Teefey.
And while Beyoncé encouraged her to stay home, Tina shared that she wanted to be there to celebrate her latest accomplishment.
“’Mama, you’re not yourself,’” Tina recalled Beyonce saying. “And so, she was like, ‘Your health is more important. Don’t go.’” However, noted Tina, “A lot of my life, I just refused to be recognized. I would never take an award. I would never want the attention to me, and this was my saying, ‘I deserve this.’”
With Beyoncé, Solange and Kelly in the audience, Tina used her speech at the event to thank them personally, despite the public not knowing the full weight of their support.
“That’s why when I said, you know, with them, I could get through anything,” she said. “Nobody knew what I was talking about.”