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Beyoncé and Solange's mom -- who is now cancer-free -- opens up about her breast cancer journey in her new memoir, Matriarch, including how she first discovered her diagnosis.
Tina Knowles has revealed a private battle with breast cancer last year.
While promoting her new memoir, Matriarch, in an interview with People, the 71-year-old mom of Beyoncé and Solange -- shared that she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer in her left breast last July after she had previously missed her routine mammogram during the pandemic.
Tina opens up about her cancer diagnosis in her new book, which was released on Tuesday, and explained to People why she decided to publicly speak out about her cancer battle.
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View Story"I struggled with whether I would share that journey [in the book] 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," 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."
"I forgot that I didn't go to get my test two years before I thought I had," she recalled of missing her routine appointment, "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."
After what happened to her, Tina stressed the importance of women staying up to date on their scans. "It's important not to slack on your mammograms," she said.
"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," she later added.
Meanwhile, in her memoir, she recalled how her daughters, Beyoncé and Solange, reacted to her diagnosis.
Per People, Tina wrote that Beyoncé, 43, "took it well, staying positive, and I could already feel her mind racing, focusing on this as a task to tackle with precision."
She said Solange, 38, told her, "Mom, we are going to take care of this."
Tina said Destiny Child's Kelly Rowland and her niece, Angie Beyince, also supported her. "My girls became my team," she wrote.
While speaking about her breast cancer journey with Gayle King on Tuesday's episode of CBS Mornings, Tina said all four of her girls were by her side and helped alleviate her nerves when she went to the hospital for a lumpectomy last year.
"I was nervous, and so they started just joking with me," she said, adding that her girls helped her "get out of my head."
"I said, 'You know, I'm just so happy that y'all are here," Tina recalled, before she became emotional as she revealed her daughters, Rowland, and her niece sang a rendition of Destiny's Child's "Walk With Me."
During her interview with People, Tina opened up about how she's doing now.
"I'm doing great," she said. "Cancer-free and incredibly blessed that God allowed me to find it early."
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According to Tina, she learned that she does not have any breast cancer genes or a family history of breast cancer. However, her ex-husband, Mathew Knowles, -- who battled stage 1 breast cancer -- previously shared with People that he has the BRCA2 gene mutation. Knowles is the father of both Beyoncé and Solange.
Meanwhile, Tina concluded her interview with People with a powerful message.
"I want to show people you can go through that and still be fly," she said.
"I want to give people hope," she shared. "What scares me now is not making the best of every day that I have left in this life."
Matriarch: A Memoir is out now.
