Beyoncé’s mum Tina has been diagnosed with breast cancer, she has announced. Tina, 71, revealed she had delayed a mammogram appointment during the coronavirus pandemic before the tumours were discovered by doctors. Following her diagnosis, with one tumour being revealed to be benign and the other being Stage 1, Tina was informed that had she kept to her regular mammograms, it could have been detected at Stage 0 – which means the cancer may not have spread from the breast tissue.
Tina admits that she had always taken care of herself but following her diagnosis, she was “in disbelief.” The tumours were found in her left breast. Although she had delayed her mammograms, Tina’s cancer was not spreading and was believed to be slow-growing. “I;m getting emotional,” Tina said when she was asked how difficult it was to process her diagnosis.
Speaking to Gayle King, Tina said: “It was Stage One which I thought was the earliest stage. Then when I told my sister, she said ‘No, actually, there’s a Zero’. So if I had gone for my mammogram, I would have got it at the Zero stage – thank God it was still very small, hadn’t spread, it was a very slow spreading cancer.”
She later underwent a lumpectomy to remove the tumour from her breast in August and is believed to be cancer free. Reflecting on the day of her surgery, she said “all of her girls” showed up to support her.
Throughout the terrifying ordeal, her two daughters, superstar Beyoncé and Solange Knowles were by Tina’s side, with friends also visiting her in hospital. “I was so nervous. And so they started just joking with me.” It was during her hospital stay when musician Solange shared a video with Tina of the viral “demure” moment which captivated audiences on TikTok.
She added: “I start laughing. I get out of my head… Then I said ‘I’m just so happy that y’all are here’ and I thought about the song ‘Walk With Me’ which they used to sing all the time.” Solange and Tina’s niece Angie Beyincé then sang the track to the businesswoman before her operation.
Becoming tearful, Tina said of the song: “It’s about God walking with you into something and protecting you. They sung that song and I went in there feeling just like ‘God has got me.'” But months after her operation, Tina almost missed Glamour’s 2024 Women of the Year event after suffering from an infection after the surgery.
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