Beyoncé’s mum Tina Knowles was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The 71-year-old was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer in July of last year. She revealed she had delayed a scheduled mammogram appointment before two tumours were discovered by doctors.
One tumour was revealed to be benign but the other – in her left breast – was found to be cancerous. She later underwent a lumpectomy to remove the tumour from her breast in August and is now cancer-free.
Tina has opened up about her secret health battle in a new interview with CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King. She said of the diagnosis: “I’ve always tried to take care of myself. I just … was in disbelief.”
(Image: Getty Images)
She explained that she had missed her routine screening during the Coronavirus pandemic and didn’t reschedule it until last year. It was then that the doctors found the cancerous tumour.
Tina was also told that, had she attended her mammogram screenings, the could have been detected at Stage 0 – which is when the cancer hasn’t spread from the breast tissue.
Tina’s two famous daughters – Beyoncé and fellow singer Solange – came to support her in hospital ahead of her surgery. “I was nervous,” Tina said. “And so they started just joking with me.”
In a bid to try and cheer her mother up, Solange played a video of the viral “demure” meme that was huge on TikTok. “I start laughing. I get out of my head. … Then I said, ‘I’m just so happy that y’all are here’.
(Image: FilmMagic)
“And I thought about the song ‘Walk With Me,’ which they used to sing all the time,” she said. Solange and her niece Angie sang the song to her before the op.
Tina burst into tears as she grew emotional in the interview with King. “It’s about God walking with you into something and protecting you, and I went in there feeling just like God has got me.”
In October, Tina nearly missed Glamour’s Women of the Year event as she had developed a serious infection after the surgery. Beyoncé and the rest of her family urged her to rest up.
The Halo singer had told her mum that she’s ‘not herself’ and that she advised she didn’t go as her “health is more important”. But Tina felt she should go to the ceremony given her recent health scare.
“A lot of my life, I just refused to be recognized,” she told King. “I would never take an award. I would never want the attention to me … and this was my saying, ‘I deserve this’.”
“It’s important not to slack on your mammograms,” she told People Magazine, admitting she initially struggled with whether or not to include her health battles in her book due to her private nature.
“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.”
Tina has released her new memoir Matriarch. More of her chat with CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King will air on Wednesday (April 23).
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
