Tina Knowles opens up about her stage one breast cancer diagnosis in inspiring new memoir

Tina Knowles revealed in her new memoir “Matriarch” that she was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer.

The mother of two iconic US singers, Beyonce and Solange Knowles, shared that the cancer they found was in the form of one benign and one malignant tumour.

The 71-year-old said that she was shocked when doctors discovered stage one breast cancer in her left breast last year.

She shared in an exclusive interview with “People” that at first she struggled with whether or not she should share her breast cancer battle in her book, considering that she is a private person.

“Well, I struggled with whether I would share that journey because I’m very private. But I decided to share it because I think it’s a lot of lessons in it for other women.

“I wanted to make sure that they knew how important it is not to slack on your mammogram because you don’t have to let this be… I mean, you can catch cancer at stage one, even stage zero.

"I didn’t know there was stage zero, I could have caught this at stage zero if I had not missed my mammogram, but I did because of Covid,” she explained.

Knowles shared that she underwent surgery to remove it, and she is now cancer-free.

In another interview with Oprah Winfrey on “Oprah’s Book Club”, she shared the inspiration behind her memoir.

She shared, “Well, I never thought I would do a memoir because, as you know, my family is super private, more so than me. But I felt like I had to protect everybody and not talk about things.”

She shared that she wanted to set the record straight and correct the misinformation and rumours that have been going around online for years about her life and her family.

“And there have been so many narratives about me and my family, so many misconceptions, so many lies that I decided one day, ‘You know, do I want people to tell my story after I’m gone and create their own narrative, or should I tell it?'”