Tina Knowles Opens Up About Mathew Knowles’ Infidelity Leading To Their Divorce After 31-Year Marriage: ‘I Felt Like I Failed’

Tina Knowles Opens Up About Mathew Knowles’ Infidelity Leading To Their Divorce After 31-Year Marriage: ‘I Felt Like I Failed’

In her memoir “Matriarch,” Tina Knowles opens up about the infidelity that ended her 31-year marriage to Mathew Knowles.

“There were already problems in our marriage that first year,” she writes, revealing how his repeated cheating eroded their bond. While raising Beyoncé and Solange, Tina Knowles endured “extremely joyous” highs and “disgusted and heartsick” lows.

She recalls a breaking point during her pregnancy with Solange:

“The marriage was deteriorating faster than I could possibly find ways…to make it work.”

In 2009, she learned through the press that Mathew Knowles fathered a child with another woman. “I screamed, ‘Get out! Get out!’… my world had exploded.” They divorced in 2011. “I felt like I failed…myself.”

Yet, through heartbreak came growth. “For the first time it was a lot about nurturing myself.” Though she later separated from second husband Richard Lawson, she reflects, “I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”