- Tina Knowles-Lawson revealed the origins of Beyoncé's name: Beyoncé was originally her maiden name.
- Beyoncé celebrates her relationship with her mom, Tina Knowles-Lawson, in Black Is King, her latest visual album.
- Here's what Knowles-Lawson, mother of Beyoncé and Solange, has been up to lately.
There would be no Beyoncé without Tina Knowles-Lawson, the superstar's mother. Even Beyoncé's name pays tribute to her mother, and her New Orleans roots. During an appearance on the In My Head With Heather Thomson podcast, Knowles-Lawson revealed that her maiden name is actually–wait for it!—Beyoncé.
“A lot of people don’t know that Beyoncé is my last name. It’s my maiden name," she said. "My name was Celestine Beyoncé, which at that time was not a cool thing to have that weird name. I wanted my name to be Linda Smith because those were the cool names."
The 66-year-old is the mother to two of the most prominent visionaries in the entertainment industry today, Beyoncé Knowles Carter and Solange Knowles. She also counts her niece, Angie Beyince, and singer Kelly Rowland, who came to live with the family when she was 11, among her daughters.
Knowles-Lawson is the matriarch of a family of celebrities, but she's definitely a public figure in her own right. Lately, Knowles-Lawson has kept busy as an outspoken activist, philanthropist, art collector, fashion designer, Issa Rae bestie, and undeniable queen of Instagram, where she posts hilarious jokes and hosts her own talk show, with a bent toward social justice.
With the release of Black Is King, Beyoncé's visual album, Knowles-Lawson is also in "full-time Beyoncé champion" mode, defending her daughter against what she perceives to be unjust criticism—namely, the allegation that Beyoncé has appropriated African culture in Black Is King—while also celebrating the movie on Instagram.
“Beyoncé was taught from a little girl to lift other women up not to tear them down. She minds her own business, does not criticize anyone, gives of her time and money and dedicates her art to boldly show the royalty and beauty of our heritage and journey! Her work is to change the narrative! To show that we did not start off as slaves, but that we were kings and queens before we were forced into slavery,” she wrote in an impassioned Instagram post.
Knowles-Lawson appears throughout Black Is King, including in the background of a garden tea party and in the sequence for the song "Brown Skin Girl," alongside her granddaughters Blue Ivy, 8, and Rumi, 3. “My mother has always been invested in making women feel beautiful,” Beyoncé told the New York Times in 2017.
Here's everything you need to know about Knowles-Lawson. After all, if it weren't for her, there would be no Beyoncé—and no Black Is King.
Her daughters pay tribute to her in their music.
Obviously, Knowles-Lawson appears in Black Is King, but she's also mentioned throughout many of her daughters' body of work. In a May 2020 remix of Megan Thee Stallion's "Savage," Beyoncé rapped about her mom. "Got this sh*t from Tina," Bey says in one of the song's catchiest lines.
Solange also devoted an entire interlude on her 2016 album, A Seat at the Table, to her mom. "My mother has a very special way of communicating, a very special channel that she speaks through that has always felt bigger than her," Solange told the New York Times.
She's outspoken (and hilarious) on Instagram.
Why don't you take this moment to follow Ms. Tina on Instagram, if you aren't already? On her feed, she is an impassioned advocate for racial justice, and often participates (or hosts) educational and broadening talks on Instagram Live.
At the same time, she's also keen on posting must-watch, selfie-style monologues, corny jokes, and dance routines.
Naturally, she's spent Black Is King's release day Instagramming her favorite moments from the movie:
She's married to the actor Richard Lawson.
In 2009, after 31 years of marriage and two daughters together, Knowles-Lawson filed for divorce from her husband, Mathew Knowles.
Speaking to ABC13 in 2016, she opened up about the healing process that comes after divorce. “I remember my first little pity party, and I called [Beyoncé and Solange] crying and, you know, they all came. We had a slumber party: We watched old movies all night and ate ice cream. It was very healing," she said.
In 2013, she met Richard Lawson, an actor who has appeared in For Colored Girls, Poltergeist, and How Stella Got Her Groove Back—though she wasn't necessarily expecting to find love again. "I remember having conversations with my kids and saying, 'Where am I going to meet somebody at 58 years old?' I started doing the things that I loved doing again. I reconnected with old friends that made me happy. And God sent somebody into my life,” she said.
They were married in 2015—after Blue Ivy gave the couple her blessing. "[In September] we went on a boat with Beyoncé and Jay Z for her birthday, and when we came out one night dressed to go to dinner, Blue said, 'Oh, ya'll look beautiful. When are ya'll getting married?'" she told People. "Richard said, 'Oh, Blue, soon. Do you approve?' And she said yes," Tina added. "That's the first time we talked seriously about getting married."
Today, Knowles-Lawson is also stepmother to Lawson's daughter, Bianca.
Like her daughters, she was born and raised in Texas.
She was born Célestine Ann Byincé in Galveston, TX, the youngest of seven siblings. Knowles-Lawson's parents hail from Louisiana and have Creole roots. Her future clothing line collaboration with Beyoncé, House of Dereon, paid tribute to her seamstress mother, Agnes Dereon.
Like her daughters, Knowles-Lawson had dreams of pop stardom, forming the group the Veltones in high school. But Tina was always more interested in fashion design, and moved to L.A. to pursue a career. “When I was about 14, my brother’s girlfriend, who was older than me, came into my life and it just about changed my world because she started taking me places. It opened a new world for me. It made me want my world to be bigger,” she said on Beyonce.com.
After a year working as a makeup artist at the Shiseido counter, though, she returned to Texas to care for her ailing mother. She and her former husband, Mathew Knowles, had their daughters in Houston—and legends were born.
She's close with her older siblings.
At 66, Knowles-Lawson is the youngest of her siblings. Two, unfortunately, are deceased, per Vanity Fair. However, she appears to be close with her remaining sisters—one of whom, Selena, is in her 90s. "I was born on my sister Flo’s 10th birthday," she wrote on Instagram. She said I came into the world screwing up her life cause her birthday party was cancelled because of me."
Here she is with Selena, 92 when the photo was taken. Knowles-Lawson noted that all of the siblings use different spellings of the last name. "All of us have a different spelling. I think me and my brother, Skip, were the only two that had B-E-Y-O-N-C-E," Tina said on the In My Head With Heather Thomson podcast.
Knowles-Lawson's art collection is featured in Black Is King.
Tina Knowles-Lawson has been purchasing art by Black artists for decades, amassing a collective extensive enough to merit an entire Vanity Fair profile about the topic. Her first purchase was during a year-long stint in Los Angeles, working as a beautician.
“When my kids were growing up, it was really important to me that they saw images of African-Americans,” Lawson told Vanity Fair. “I’m so happy that I did, because both of them are really aware of their culture, and I think a lot of that had to do with looking at those images every day, those strong images.”
According to an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Beyoncé borrowed some of the collection for the Black Is King shoot, another way of paying tribute to her mom.
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