Singer Beyonce and her dad have put an end to any speculation surrounding their relationship as they posed together backstage at her Houston concert on Wedneday. Beyonce and Mathew Knowles, who used to manage her until she parted ways professionally from him 2011, were often thought to have had a complicated relationship ever since he split from her mum Tina following 31 years of marriage.
But on Wednesday night it was Tina who shared the sweet shot of Beyonce and her dad both smiling into camera as they cuddled backstage.
“Houston Concert proud dad!!” she captioned it.
Mathew managed Beyonce from 1990 – when she was in group GirlsTyme – until 2011. It came a year after he split from wife Tina Knowles after his extra-martial affairs were discovered. Speaking about severing her business ties with her father to Oprah Winfrey two years later, Beyonce admitted it had been difficult.
“It took a while for me and my dad to have an understanding”, she said. When I turned 18 and started handling my business more, he went into shock. And we had our issues. I’d say “No” to something, and he’d book it anyway.”
“Then I’d have to do it because I’d look bad [if I didn’t]. We would fight sometimes, and it took about two years, to when I was 20, for him to realise, ‘Oh, she is an adult now, and if she doesn’t wanna do something, I can’t make her do it.'”
Two years after Tina and Matthew’s divorce, he married former model Gena Charmaine Avery – neither Beyonce or Solange were present. Meanwhile, Beyonce appeared to reference their feud in a track on her latest Lemonade album. In one track she sings:
“You remind me of my father – a magician, able to exist in two places at once / In the tradition of men in my blood you come home at 3am and lie to me.
“What are you hiding? The past and the future merge to meet us here. What luck. What a f***ing curse.”
There’s also a track tellingly entitled ‘Daddy Issues’. Fans speculated online that Beyonce is channelling her mother when she sings about cheating.