Tina Knowles Details Early Bias Against Destiny’s Child, Recalls Jessica Simpson Getting A Bigger Dressing Room At Disney Show & Group Being Told To Dress More Like Britney Spears

Tina Knowles Details Early Bias Against Destiny’s Child, Recalls Jessica Simpson Getting A Bigger Dressing Room At Disney Show & Group Being Told To Dress More Like Britney Spears

Tina Knowles is getting candid about the behind-the-scenes bias Destiny’s Child faced early in their careers.

 

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In her new memoir Matriarch, Beyoncé and Solange’s mom opened up about the treatment her daughter and groupmates Kelly, Michelle, and Farrah received in the early 2000s—and the contrast she witnessed between them and white pop stars like Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears.

At a 2000 Disney World show, Tina says Simpson, whom she described as “a nice person” and “a friend,” was given a larger dressing room than Destiny’s Child, adding that

“[Jessica] thought it was strange too.”

Tina also claims event staff spoke to Jessica in a “singsong Disney voice,” while being

“very rigid with the girls, repeating themselves as if they were dumb.” 

And when then-manager Matthew Knowles put on a Goofy costume backstage just to make the girls laugh? Tina says, “He was scolded” over the incident.

But the drama didn’t stop there. After Beyoncé threw a towel into the crowd during their first set, Tina says police threatened to arrest her if she did it again.

“For the next performance, the police officers had the nerve to stand onstage while they performed,” she wrote, adding that she felt “pissed off.”

She also dropped some fashion industry truth bombs, claiming execs from Sony, who the group was signed to at the time, didn’t want her styling the group anymore. According to Tina, they said Destiny’s Child would “never be as popular” as Spears or Aguilera wearing her designs, calling their style “too Texas” and “Motown.”

Tina says she understood exactly what that meant, writing in the book:

“Mathew and I both knew what this was code for. They were too Black, and any kind of Black was too Black. But the girls are Black.”

Despite all that, Tina stood firm and even recalled Britney later praising her designs after they met at a show in Germany. According to Tina, Britney told her:

“‘One day, Miss Tina, you’ve please got to do something for me.’”