Despite Beyoncé’s long-standing friendship with Destiny’s Child bandmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, rumors have always persisted that she never wanted to be part of a girl group — but her mom, Tina Knowles, is here to set the record straight.
In her new memoir, Matriarch, Knowles hit back at the idea that her eldest daughter had always intended on pursuing a solo career. “People oftentimes say that the goal was always for Beyoncé to be solo, but if that were the case, she would have done that out of the gate,” Knowles, 71, wrote in the book, which hit shelves Tuesday, April 22. “She loved being part of a group.”
Knowles also noted that Beyoncé, now 43, “pushed back” the release date of her first solo album, Dangerously in Love, so that “her sister Kelly could take full advantage of the momentum of her own success.” (Rowland, 44, and Williams, 45, both released their first solo albums in 2002, while Dangerously in Love dropped the following year.)
Beyoncé and Rowland had been a part of Destiny’s Child since 1990, when it was called Girls Tyme. Williams, meanwhile, joined the group in 2000 alongside Farrah Franklin following the departure of LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson.
While Knowles didn’t detail the reason for Luckett and Roberson’s exits in her book, she did push back against the idea that Beyoncé caused the split — or that she was happy to see them go.
“Beyoncé saw it as the end of a marriage of 10 years, and she began to grieve it as such,” Knowles wrote. “Rumors and negative stories took hold, casting Beyoncé as the daddy’s girl who made demands, and people even ran with a lie that Kelly only stayed because she was Mathew’s biological child from an affair. It was all incredibly hurtful.”
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Tina went on to say that “Beyoncé would barely leave her room, cocooned in her bed” after Roberson and Luckett left the band, while her dad, Mathew Knowles, “seemed paralyzed; his racing mind of ideas slowed to a stop.”
According to Tina, she led the push to find new Destiny’s Child members, and soon, Williams and Franklin, 43, had joined the group. Franklin left the band after a few months and DC continued as a trio. Of Franklin, Tina writes, “She unfortunately didn’t work out, and I always wish her the very best on her journey.”
In 2002, Luckett and Roberson filed a lawsuit against Beyoncé, Rowland and Mathew, accusing them of breach of partnership and fiduciary duties. The case was settled later that year.
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Last year, however, Luckett confirmed there’s no bad blood with Beyoncé or Rowland, sharing a photo that showed her reunited with the duo as well as Williams and Roberson.
“
ALL LOVE This was hands down my favorite moment of 2023 
,” Luckett captioned the Instagram snap in January 2024, adding she felt “love,” “joy” and “healing” at the reunion. “May we all experience beautiful moments like this in 2024.”
Matriarch is out now.
