Tina Knowles is no stranger to being a strong force behind powerful women—but last year, the 71-year-old matriarch found herself leaning on her daughters in an entirely new way.
In a candid new interview, Tina revealed that she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer in July 2024 after missing a mammogram during the pandemic. It’s the first time she’s spoken publicly about the diagnosis, and she’s opening up in hopes of encouraging other women not to delay their screenings.
“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.’ And I just thought I had done it. So you cannot play around with that,” she told People, in a heartfelt warning about the risks of putting off routine checkups.
Tina shared that she debated for a long time whether to go public with her story. “I struggled with whether I would share that journey because I’m very private,” she said. “But I decided to share it because I think it’s a lot of lessons in it for other women. 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.”
Her decision to speak out is also part of her new memoir, Matriarch, where she gets deeply personal about life, motherhood, and now—this health battle.
In the book, she details how her daughters Beyoncé and Solange reacted to the diagnosis. “Beyoncé took it well, staying positive, and I could already feel her mind racing, focusing on this as a task to tackle with precision,” Tina wrote. Meanwhile, Solange jumped into full support mode, telling her, “Mom, we are going to take care of this.”
Her inner circle immediately stepped up. Tina says she found incredible strength and comfort in her “girls,” including longtime family friend Kelly Rowland and her niece, Angie Beyince. “My girls became my team,” she said.
Following her diagnosis, Tina underwent surgery to remove the tumor. Thankfully, she’s now cancer-free—and feeling immensely grateful for how things turned out.
“Cancer-free and incredibly blessed that God allowed me to find it early,” she shared. “I didn’t know that there was a stage 0. I could have caught this at stage 0 if I had not missed my mammogram. I want to show people you can go through that and still be fly.”
Her story is a powerful reminder of how vital early detection can be—and how community and love can make even the scariest journeys feel less lonely. With her daughters, family, and friends at her side, Tina turned a terrifying diagnosis into an opportunity to raise awareness and encourage others to take care of their health, too.
