Beyoncé’s father and former manager, Mathew Knowles, says he’s “evaluating all legal remedies” after footage of him abruptly ending an interview when a journalist asked about his ex-wife, Tina Knowles, and her relationship to their daughter’s pop group, Destiny’s Child, leaked online.
On Monday, the New York Post’s Page Six shared a previously unseen clip from Mathew Knowles’ interview with New York TV news outlet PIX11 on Jan. 30. Toward the end of the chat, anchor Kendis Gibson said both of Beyoncé’s parents have “earned their flowers” with respect to the success Destiny’s Child has enjoyed over the years.
“I said the same thing to Ms. Tina Knowles. You guys put in the work, and obviously the talent was there,” Gibson said, after which Mathew Knowles asked, “What work did she put in?”
At first, Gibson credited Tina Knowles for “the hair, the clothes” worn by Beyoncé and her bandmates, to which Mathew Knowles responded, “You’re absolutely right. The styling, the imaging.” When Gibson went a step further and suggested Destiny’s Child “was a joint effort,” however, Mathew Knowles quickly shut him down.
“We’ll stop now,” he said as he stood up from his chair.
Matthew Knowles (right) with daughter Beyoncé and former wife Tina Knowles in 2003.
HuffPost reached out to PIX11 for comment on the footage, which does not appear in Gibson’s full-length interview with Mathew Knowles on YouTube, but did not immediately hear back.
Though it’s unclear how Page Six was able to access the clip, it quickly went viral online, with Sherri Shepherd discussing it on her daytime talk show and rapper 50 Cent sharing a snarky response on Instagram. Viewers, meanwhile, responded in the comments of Page Six’s YouTube page by deeming Mathew Knowles a “bitter, selfish” person and a “true narcissist.”
On Wednesday evening, Mathew Knowles attempted to quell the backlash in a new interview with Page Six, telling the outlet that his words were intended as “a question,” after which Gibson “diminished” Tina Knowles’ contributions to Destiny’s Child.
Tina Knowles, he said, “did the styling, built the image for Destiny’s Child. Wouldn’t you agree that’s way more than saying someone just did the hair?”
Noting that he and Tina Knowles “have a wonderful relationship,” he added: “People try to bait us all the time to be against each other. There was a complete misrepresentation here, and I’m evaluating all legal remedies at this time.”
When Page Six’s Carlos Greer pushed for specifics, Mathew Knowles had no additional comment.
Mathew and Tina Knowles divorced in 2011 after 31 years of marriage. That same year, Mathew Knowles ended his professional relationship with Beyoncé after serving as the manager of both Destiny’s Child and the early phase of her career as a solo artist.
Following the release of her memoir, “Matriach,” last year, Tina Knowles gave an interview with Gayle King on SiriusXM in which she acknowledged “really tumultuous, terrible times” in her relationship with her former husband.
Still, she added: “I never questioned whether he loved me or my kids, and we are on good terms.”