Beyonce’s Mom, Tina Knowles, Reveals Cancer Diagnosis

Tina Knowles is opening up about her private breast cancer journey.

The 71-year-old mother of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles told PEOPLE in an interview published Tuesday that she was blindsided last July when doctors discovered stage 1 cancer in her left breast.

While Tina “struggled” with whether or not to publicly share her cancer diagnosis, as she’s “very private,” she ultimately decided to write about it in her new memoir Matriarch “because I think [my cancer journey has] a lot of lessons in it for other women.”

One of those lessons is to make sure you are getting regular mammograms. “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,” Tina explained. “Because if I had not gotten my test early, I mean, I shudder to think what could have happened to me.”

Tina herself missed one of her scheduled mammograms before getting her cancer diagnosis. “I forgot that I didn’t go to get my test two years before I thought I had,” she told the outlet, “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.”

When Beyoncé learned about her mother’s diagnosis, Tina writes in Matriarch that the superstar “took it well, staying positive, and I could already feel her mind racing, focusing on this as a task to tackle with precision.” Solange, meanwhile, said, “Mom, we are going to take care of this.”

Tina underwent surgery late last year to remove the tumor and undergo a breast reduction. Today, she is “doing great” and is “cancer-free and incredibly blessed that God allowed me to find it early.”

“I want to give people hope,” Tina said of sharing her story now. “What scares me now is not making the best of every day that I have left in this life.” She added, “I want to show people you can go through that and still be fly.”