Tina Knowles opens up on breast cancer diagnosis and recovery
Tina Knowles, mother of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles, is opening up about a recent health issue.
The author of a brand-new book, "Matriarch: A Memoir," Tina Knowles spoke with People about her recent breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent recovery in an interview published Tuesday.
"I struggled with whether I would share that journey because I'm very private. But I decided to share it because I think it's a lot of lessons in it for other women," Knowles said of her decision to detail her cancer diagnosis in her book.
Knowles, 71, said one of those lessons was the importance of not missing mammograms. "We can catch cancer at stage 1 or even stage 0, I didn't know there was a stage 0, I could have caught this at stage 0 if I had not missed my mammogram but I did because of COVID," she said.
According to People, Knowles said she forgot she had missed a mammogram that had been previously canceled.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, citing the US Preventive Services Task Force, recommends that women 40 to 74 years old, at average risk for breast cancer, get a mammogram every two years.
"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," Knowles said.
According to People, Knowles underwent surgery to remove a tumor and had a breast reduction late last year.
"After the surgery, I feel like I'm the healthiest I've been in a long time because I'm very focused on what I eat and taking care of myself," she said.
In her book, Knowles also included her daughters' reactions to the news. According to People, Knowles wrote that Beyoncé "took it well, staying positive, and I could already feel her mind racing, focusing on this as a task to tackle with precision."
She also included Solange Knowles' reaction, writing that her daughter said, "Mom, we are going to take care of this."
In an interview with CBS Mornings, Tina Knowles said her daughters laughed with her prior to her surgery, showing her the viral "very demure" TikTok trend from creator Jools Lebron.
In her People interview, Knowles also discussed her childhood, motherhood and raising her daughters, as well as Beyoncé's Destiny's Child bandmate Kelly Rowland, whom she said she raised from age 11.
"Matriarch," hits shelves Tuesday. A description of the book reads, "This is a page-turning chronicle of family love and heartbreak, of loss and perseverance, and of the kind of creativity, audacity, and will it takes for a girl from Galveston to change the world. It's one brilliant woman's intimate and revealing story, and a multigenerational family saga that carries within it the story of America—and the wisdom that women pass on to one another, mothers to daughters, across generations."
