Tina Knowles gets choked up on Loose Women over ‘difficult’ breast cancer diagnosis

Tina Knowles has opened up about her breast cancer diagnosis during her appearance on Loose Women, getting emotional about how her daughters Beyonce and Solange have supported her through hard times.

The 71-year-old, who is set to release her new memoir Matriarch, opened up about how her health issues forced her to ask her close friends and family for support.

She told the hosts: ‘Friendships with women is of the utmost importance to me its one of my biggest priorities to stay connected, because when I went through that [cancer diagnosis] I depended on my daughters. I didn’t tell everybody in my friend group but I didn’t even have to tell them what was going on I just went to Houston and gathered my girl friends and we went to church, we went to lunch, we went out partying at the club and dancing.’

Tina then grew visibly emotional, her voice breaking as she said: ‘And I just said “I don’t want to talk about whats going on but I need you guys right now” and they were all right there with me, so they’ve been a big part of my life my whole life.’

She was then asked by Kaye Adams: ‘It’s difficult to be vulnerable in front of your daughters, isn’t it, because we always feel as mothers we’ve got to sort of protect them?’

Tina responded, once again growing tearful: ‘Yeah I did but with this one, they were the first people I told, they were the only people I told for awhile and they rallied around me, they always have at those very difficult times, when I went through divorce the first time you know I was devastated and my girls were right there to lift me up.’

Tina has previously shared that she was blindsided by the diagnosis.

In her book, the matriarch – also mom to Solange Knowles – shed light on how her daughters dealt with the news.

She wrote, in an extract via Today, that Beyonce ‘took it well, staying positive, and I could already feel her mind racing, focusing on this as a task to tackle with precision.

‘She would find me the top specialist, and I distinctively remember her telling me, “I want you to get a second opinion on whatever the course of treatment is,”’ she penned, via Today.

The Halo singer ‘lined up one of the top breast surgery specialists in the country’ for her mother to get a private consultation, and moved her into her family home with husband Jay-Z, as well as children Blue Ivy, Rumi and Sir.

‘Mom, we are going to take care of this,’ Solange told her, as Kelly Rowland and her other family members quickly rallied around and ‘became my team.’

Tina gave her daughters a sweet shout-out in her speech at the Glamour 2024 Women of the Year event in October, with her words now taking on a deeper meaning.

‘”They are my crew, my tribe, my rocks, my ride-or-dies,”‘ she recalled telling the crowd. ‘They have been right there by my side at the lowest points in my life…

‘They cheered me on at the highest points of my life. Making me feel that I can conquer anything.

‘And I think as women, sometimes we get so busy and we get so wrapped up and running around, but you must go get your test. Because if I had not gotten my test early, I mean, I shudder to think what could have happened to me.’

Tina was diagnosed with cancer after missing her routine screening during the Covid-19 pandemic – she didn’t reschedule her appointment until last year.

It was at that appointment that doctors found two tumors – CBS reports that one was benign and the other had stage 1 cancer.

She was later told that, had she kept up with her routine mammograms, they may have been able to detect the cancer at Stage 0.

According to Cancer Research UK, Stage 0 is a pre-invasive breast cancer – meaning the cancer cells are in the breast ducts and have not started to spread into the surrounding breast tissue.

Stage 1 breast cancer is an ‘early stage breast cancer’ and ‘means that the cancer is small and only in the breast tissue or it might be found in lymph nodes close to the breast’.

‘It’s important not to slack on your mammograms,’ she told People Magazine, sharing that she initially ‘struggled’ with whether to include her battles in her book because of her private nature.

‘But I decided to share it because I think it’s a lot of lessons in it for other women.

‘And I think as women, sometimes we get so busy and we get so wrapped up and running around, but you must go get your test. Because if I had not gotten my test early, I mean, I shudder to think what could have happened to me.’

Tina had surgery to remove the tumor last August, and also underwent a breast reduction – with her loved ones remaining by her side throughout her ordeal.

‘I was nervous,’ she told Gayle King on CBS News. ‘And so they started just joking with me.

‘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.’

It was this poignant track that her family, including niece Angie Beyincé, sang to Tina before her lumpectomy.

Giving an update on her health, she added to People: ‘I’m doing great.

‘Cancer-free and incredibly blessed that God allowed me to find it early.

‘I want to give people hope … What scares me now is not making the best of every day that I have left in this life.’

A version of this article was originally published on April 22, 2025.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.