Beyoncé and Solange Knowles have their mother, Tina Knowles, to thank in part for their close bond.
Tina, 71, opened up about raising her famous daughters in an interview with Sara Sidner on the Friday, April 25, episode of CNN News Central. When asked how she managed to make both daughters “feel that they are special,” Tina shared, “I think one of the things is that you look at them as individuals, because they were very, very different. [Solange] is very, very different.”
Tina recalled becoming “terrified” of how the siblings’ relationship would develop when Beyoncé, 43, began performing around the age of 10. “She was in the singing group, and the kids would say to Solange every day, ‘Be quiet, Solange,’ because she would try to choreograph and, you know, she wanted to be involved — and they didn’t want her involved,” she explained. “And then I started noticing that Beyoncé would allow them to talk to her like that or she would say, ‘OK, Mom, can you get Solange out of here? Because she’s doing …’ And I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, this is her house, and you’ve got to be nice to her.’”
Noting that she “saw a wall between them coming,” Tina decided to put Beyoncé and Solange into therapy together, much to the displeasure of others. “My family was like, ‘You’re going to make those girls crazy.’ Because, you know, especially in the Black community back then [people didn’t go to therapy]. Back then, it was really taboo,” she said. “Even my [ex-]husband [Mathew Knowles], he was like, ‘I just don’t know if they’re too young for you to do that.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m not asking. I’m going to find somebody.’”
Tina said she found a “wonderful” therapist whom her girls responded to, even though Beyoncé “hated therapy.” Solange, however, “loved” the experience. “She loved talking and, you know, expressing herself,” Tina said of her youngest child. “And the outcome was great. It was really great because they had been super tight since.”
Sidner, 52, called Tina’s introduction of therapy to her girls “such a beautiful gift,” especially now that Beyoncé and Solange are “clearly tight.” Tina agreed, adding, “Yeah, they are very tight.”
Despite being one of Hollywood’s closest celebrity sibling duos, Beyoncé and Solange have faced some ups and downs in the spotlight. Most notably, footage was released in 2014 of Solange getting into an argument with her sister’s husband, Jay-Z, in a New York City elevator during a Met Gala afterparty. During the heated exchange, Solange was seen hitting and kicking her brother-in-law as Beyoncé stood to the side.
“Jay and Solange each assume their share of responsibility for what has occurred,” the trio said in a May 2014 statement. “They both acknowledge their role in this private matter that has played out in the public. They both have apologized to each other and we have moved forward as a united family.”
Solange and Jay-Z, 55, have since made amends, with Jay-Z stating that they are “cool” during an August 2017 interview with Rap Radar. “She’s like my sister. I will protect her,” he said at the time. “That’s my sister, not my sister-in-law. My sister. Period.”
Beyoncé and Solange, meanwhile, have continued to support each other’s careers, with Solange famously joining her sister on stage during her historic Coachella headlining performances in 2018.
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