whitneydaniell

by: Tina Knowles
published: April 22, 2025
genre: Memoir, Autobiography
432 pages, Hardcover
Goodreads | Amazon

When you’re going through something, it means you’re going through it — you’re not going to get stuck there. You will come out on the other side and survive.

How could an autobiography be anything but a five-star read?

I legit just finished this book 0.5 seconds ago and couldn’t wait to get my thoughts down.

First things first—if you’re picking up this book hoping to get more insight into Beyoncé, you can forget it. Matriarch is about Celestine Ann Beyoncé from Galveston, Texas, with deep roots stretching 275 miles to Weeks Island, Louisiana.

At its heart, this is a love story—to the women who raised her, the sisters who stood beside her, and to herself: the woman she was before marriage and kids, the woman she rediscovered after two divorces, and the woman she’s still learning to be at seventy years old (the book ends just before her 71st birthday this past January). Ms. Tina beautifully honors the delicate, ever-shifting nature of womanhood—how easy it is to lose yourself in being a mother, a caretaker, a secret keeper, a bodyguard, a soft place to land. She captures how women often wake up one day unsure of who they are beyond the titles given to them by others: daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend.

The book is divided into three acts:
Act I: A Daughter
Act II: A Mother
Act III: A Woman

And while I expected Act II to steal the show, it was Act I that had me in tears. The reverence and love Ms. Tina has for her mother oozes from every page, every line, every word. Even when she recalls moments of pain or strictness, the respect she holds for her mother’s role in her life never wavers. As someone with their own mother wounds, reading how she wrote about hers made me reflect deeply on my own relationship—and maybe even ache a little for that kind of love.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you. I didn’t trust the world. I know what people can do to you.”
—Agnes Derouen (Buyince), to a 19-year-old Tina

Act II is where the veil drops. The Knowles-Carter family is famously private, but here, Ms. Tina lays bare her 2-year courtship and eventual 31-year marriage to Mathew Knowles—and wow. I hadn’t realized they were together for 33 years. From the jump, she knew their foundation wasn’t solid. Infidelity swooped in early and often. And as many times as she left Mathew, he came right back. One thing I did come to respect was that, in every room he entered, Mathew stood up for her. He wasn’t intimidated by her strength and didn’t let anyone underestimate her. For that, I’ll give him his flowers. But in every other way he should’ve shown up as a husband, he failed. Even if it took her 33 years to make a clean break, I’m proud she did—because as Tyler Perry once told her that, “the protection of your spirit [is] more important than appearances.”

If Act II is Ms. Tina’s villain era, then Act III is her redemption arc.

Act III brings us back to Ms. Tina—Badass Tenie B—navigating life solo. She touches briefly on her 10-year relationship and marriage with Richard Lawson, but their story is wrapped up in about a chapter and a half.

“I didn’t know another way to feel fulfilled in life without having a partner to share it with.”

Badass Tenie B grew up in a big family—huge. Six siblings, eight nieces and nephews (some older than her, some younger), and a community that always surrounded her with love. Her childhood home was the neighborhood hub; everyone wanted to be at Tenie Mama’s house. She was never alone. When she left for San Diego, it was with family. When she arrived in California, more family. For 57 years, her life was filled with people. Then one day, her kids had families of their own, her siblings and nieces and nephews had their own lives—and it was just her. I can only imagine how jarring and humbling that shift must have been. To not know how to navigate the world on your own? That broke me a little.

But of course, she’s Beyoncé’s mama. She ain’t no punk.

Now she’s facing the world on her own terms—doing whatever she wants, however she wants. Cue: I’m a groooown woman. I can do whatever I want!

Sometimes you don’t understand it, but He (God) is giving you things that you can take out of the toolbox and use.

I’ll admit, I picked this up because I was influenced—clearly the marketing is marketing, and all those TikToks from her book tour worked. Give Yvette Noel-Schure a raise, baby!

Random Note: Don’t let NeNe Leakes read this! Ms. Tina mentions being “eternally grateful to Kandi (Burruss-Tucker)” and ya’ll know Ms. Leakes is an enteral hater of Kandi. LOL.