Tina Knowles Reveals Breast Cancer Battle & How Beyoncé, Solange ‘Became My Team’ After Diagnosis
Written by djfrosty on April 22, 2025
Tina Knowles has revealed that she recently battled breast cancer — but with Beyoncé and Solange by her side, she had all the support she needed until she finished her treatment.
On the day of her memoir Matriarch‘s launch Tuesday (April 22), Billboard‘s 2025 Mother of the Year exclusively revealed to People that she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer last July. She received the news after missing a scheduled mammogram two years prior, which could have helped her catch the tumor sooner.
“I forgot that I didn’t go to get my test two years before I thought I had, because COVID came, and they called me and canceled me, and they said, ‘We’ll call you when we start testing again,’” she told the publication. “And I just thought I had done it. So you cannot play around with that.”
Trending on Billboard
“It’s important not to slack on your mammograms,” she added. “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.”
To treat the cancer, Knowles underwent surgery late last year to remove a tumor in her left breast. Throughout her treatment, the designer says that her two daughters — plus bonus daughter Kelly Rowland — were unified as her support system, writing in Matriarch, “My girls became my team.”
Knowles also shared in the book how her daughters reacted when she first received her diagnosis. While the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer “took it well, staying positive … I could already feel her mind racing, focusing on this as a task to tackle with precision,” Knowles says Solange told her, “We are going to take care of this.”
Now, the Cécred co-owner tells People she’s “doing great” — “cancer-free and incredibly blessed that God allowed me to find it early” — and enjoying everything that’s happening this month, from the memoir’s launch to the April 28 kickoff of Bey’s highly anticipated Cowboy Carter Tour. She also revealed that she’s currently dating, sharing coyly, “Uh, I … I am spending time with a friend, yes.”
“A very nice gentleman,” added Knowles, who was previously married to Bey and Solange’s father, Mathew Knowles, and Richard Lawson, from whom she split in 2023. “We’ll see what happens.”