33. Jay Z, Beyoncé, and their daughter, Blue Ivy, onstage at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards at the Forum on August 24, 2014, in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
34. Though the road to becoming Beyoncé was paved with as much defeat as triumph, one would be hard-pressed to imagine a more exciting and accomplished life. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)
35. Mother and daughter have been through a lot together, but they’ve emerged victorious. Here are Tina and Beyoncé at the House of Dereon launch at Selfridges in London on September 17, 2011. (REX/Richard Young)
36. Beyoncé and Jay Z onstage together in Pasadena during their successful “On The Run” tour, August 2, 2014. (REX/Frank Micelotta)
37. Beyoncé poses in the press room at the 56th Grammy Awards at the Staples Center on January 26, 2014, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
1. A Knowles family portrait taken in December 1990: Beyoncé, 9; Mathew, 37; Solange 4; and Tina Knowles, 35. By this time, Beyoncé was already winning first-place trophies in talent shows and beauty pageants. (Paul S. Howell/© Houston Chronicle. Used with permission.)
2. Beyoncé, age 10. (© The Tillman Estate. Used by permission.)
3. An early photo session of some of the many girls who auditioned for Beyoncé’s first group, Girls Tyme: (Bottom tier, l-r): unidentified girl; LaTavia Roberson; Angie Beyincé (Beyoncé’s cousin); Nicki Taylor. (Middle tier, l-r): (unidentified girl); Ashley Davis; Millicent Laday; (unidentified girl). (Top tier, l-r): Beyoncé Knowles; Denise Seals; (unidentified girl); Cheryl Roberson, LaTavia’s mom; Deborah Laday; Carolyn Davis, Ashley’s mom. (© Deborah Jackson Laday. Used by Permission.)
4. Very early Girls Tyme photo in Houston (left to right): Staci LaToisen; LaTavia Roberson; (unidentified girl); Nina Taylor; (unidentified girl); Nicki Taylor; Millicent Laday; Beyoncé Knowles (in background). (© LaTavia Roberson. Used by Permission.)
5. Girls Tyme (from top middle clockwise): Kelly Rowland, Beyoncé Knowles, LaTavia Roberson, Nicki Taylor, Nina Taylor, and Ashley Davis. (Howard Castleberry/ © Houston Chronicle. Used With Permission
6. Andretta Tillman was Beyoncé’s and Girl Tyme’s first official manager. Gone largely unacknowledged, she was the woman most responsible for the girls’ early success. (© The Tillman Estate. Used by Permission.)
7. Denise Seals and Deborah Laday are the two women who discovered Beyoncé and managed her and her group before Andretta Tillman. (Photo of Deborah Laday, © Deborah Laday. Used by Permission/Photo of Denise Seals © Denise Seals. Used by Permission.)
8. There was interest in making Beyoncé and LaTavia—both ten years old—a duo act. Here they are in the fall of 1991 on their way from Houston to Sausalito, California, to film the video for their song, “S.Y.T.” (© LaTavia Roberson. Used by Permission.)
9. . . . and then, in 1993, they were known as Somethin’ Fresh. (l-r) LaTavia, Nicki, Nina, Beyoncé, LeToya, and Kelly. (© The Tillman Estate. Used by Permission.)
10. The girls are growing up. This photo was autographed by the four of them for “Ms. Ann”—Andretta Tillman. (© The Tillman Estate. Used by Permission.)
11. By 1995, the girls were a quartet known simply as Destiny. (l-r) Kelly Rowland, Beyoncé Knowles, LaTavia Roberson, and LeToya Luckett (© The Tillman Estate. Used by Permission.)
12. Beyoncé, Kelly, and LaTavia relax in Jamaica after performing two shows there with the reggae artist, Beenie Man. (© LaTavia Roberson. Used by Permission.)
13. Kelly, LeToya, Beyoncé, and LaTavia during a shoot for 17 magazine. (© LaTavia Roberson. Used by Permission.)
14. Mathew Knowles, Kim Burse (Mathew’s A&R Director), producer, D’Wayne Wiggins, and Andretta Tillman pose in the Columbia/ Sony headquarters in New York just after the girls signed their record company contracts. The photo behind them bears the group’s name, Destiny, before it was changed to Destiny’s Child. (© The Tillman Estate. Used by Permission)
15. In 1997, Beyoncé, 16, and her boyfriend Lyndall Locke, 18, attended his senior prom at Lee High School in Houston. The happy-go-lucky Lyndall was a breath of fresh air to the always-working Beyoncé. The two were together, on and off, for almost ten years. (© Lydia Locke. Used by Permission.)
16. Beyoncé presented Lyndall with a chocolate cake on his nineteenth birthday, December 3, 1998. Also in the photo: Lyndall’s cousin, Dallas Gillespie, and sister, Laura (seated); Kelly Rowland (in cap, next to Beyoncé) and Beyoncé’s cousin, Angie Beyince (to Beyoncé’s left). (© Lydia Locke. Used by Permission.)
17. Teen cut-ups, Lyndall and Beyoncé. (© Lydia Locke. Used by Permission.)
18. In 1997, Destiny was renamed Destiny’s Child. Here, the girls pose in front of the Sony building in Manhattan just before performing at an intimate showcase for record company executives. (l-r) Beyoncé, LeToya, LaTavia, and Kelly. (© LaTavia Roberson. Used by Permission.)
19. Beyoncé’s aspiration to be a star was one thing Mathew and Tina Knowles had in common in an otherwise often-troubled marriage. They made many sacrifices to see to it that their daughter’s dream came true. (Photo by Jim Smeal/WireImage)
20. In 2000, LaTavia and LeToya attempted to disaffirm their management contracts with Mathew. To their extreme disappointment, they were replaced. Here’s the new Destiny’s Child—Michelle Williams, Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Farrah Franklin at the CFDA American Fashion Awards on June 18, 2000. (REX/Araldo DiCrollalanza)
21. In the summer of 2000, when Farrah chose not to accompany the girls to Australia for a tour, she was axed from the act leaving just Beyoncé, Kelly and Michelle, posing here with Mathew Knowles. (Pam Francis/Getty Images)
22. An incredible father-daughter team, Mathew and Beyoncé at the premiere of Beyoncé’s first major film, Austin Powers in Goldmember, at the Universal Amphitheater on July 22, 2002. (Clinton Wallace/Globe Photos, Inc.)
23. By 2002, Beyoncé and her longtime boyfriend, Lyndall Locke, had broken up and she was now dating Sean Carter—Jay Z. Here they are on MTV’s “TRL” program, November 21, 2002. (KMazur/WireImage)
24. Mathew Knowles and Jay Z on February 7, 2004, at Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy party in the Beverly Hills Hotel. (KMazur/WireImage)
25. Beyoncé and Jay Z on February 27, 2005, at the Vanity Fair party after the 2005 Academy Awards in Los Angeles. (REX/Richard Young)
26. As she thanked her parents during her speech at the “Billboard Woman of the Year” awards on October 2, 2009, only a few people knew of the family’s turmoil behind the scenes. (Jemai Countess/Getty Images)
27. AlexSandra Wright and little Nixon, Mathew Knowles’s only son. Alex’s relationship with Mathew and subsequent pregnancy would be the catalyst for great change in the Knowles family. (© AlexSandra Wright. Used by Permission.)
28. Beyoncé performing the National Anthem at the Inauguration Ceremony of President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., on January 21, 2013. (REX)
29. Beyoncé and Jay Z arrive at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for the Costume Institute Gala Benefit celebrating Charles James: Beyond Fashion, on May 5, 2014. Never could they have imagined the scene that would take place later in an elevator between Jay and Beyoncé’s sister, Solange. (George Pimentel/WireImage)
30. After the startling brawl in an elevator between Jay Z and Solange, the two emerge with Beyoncé—Jay holding his chin, apparently smarting from the fight. (© Splash News/Corbis Rights Managed [RM])
31. On May 17, 2014, Tina Knowles arranged a family outing in New Orleans to clear the air. Here, Solange and Jay leave the gathering. (© INFphoto.com/INFphoto.com/Corbis Rights Managed [RM])
32. When she was expecting, Beyoncé faced rumors that she was faking the pregnancy! Because she’d previously had a miscarriage, the false stories were all the more hurtful. Here she is arriving at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on August 28, 2011. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic)
33. Jay Z, Beyoncé, and their daughter, Blue
Ivy, onstage at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards at the Forum on August 24, 2014, in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
34. Though the road to becoming Beyoncé was paved with as much defeat as triumph, one would be hard-pressed to imagine a more exciting and accomplished life. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)
35. Mother and daughter have been through a lot together, but they’ve emerged victorious. Here are Tina and Beyoncé at the House of Dereon launch at Selfridges in London on September 17, 2011. (REX/Richard Young)
36. Beyoncé and Jay Z onstage together in Pasadena during their successful “On The Run” tour, August 2, 2014. (REX/Frank Micelotta)
37. Beyoncé poses in the press room at the 56th Grammy Awards at the Staples Center on January 26, 2014, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
ALSO BY J. RANDY TARABORRELLI
After Camelot: A Personal History of the Kennedy Family—1968 to the Present
Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot
Once Upon a Time: Behind the Fairy Tale of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier
Elizabeth
The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe
Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story (1958–2009)
The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty
Sinatra: Behind the Legend
J. Randy Taraborrelli is the bestselling author of fourteen books, including Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness, Madonna: An Intimate Biography, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth, Once Upon a Time: The Story of Princess Grace, Prince Rainier and Their Family, Call Her Miss Ross, Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot, The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty and Sinatra: Behind the Legend. He is also a CBS TV news analyst, and lives in Los Angeles.
First published 2015 by Grand Central Publishing
First published in the UK 2015 by Sidgwick and Jackson
This electronic edition published 2015 by Sidgwick and Jackson
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
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www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-0-283-07224-6
Copyright © Rose Books, Inc. 2015
Front Cover Photo © Getty Images/John Shearer
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