Tina Knowles revealed Tuesday that she had a secret brush with breast cancer.
The mother of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles admitted on “CBS Mornings” that she missed a routine mammogram appointment during the COVID-19 pandemic and did not reschedule it until last year.
When Tina, 71, finally went in for the screening, doctors found two tumors in her left breast, one of which was benign while the other had stage 1 cancer.
“I’ve always tried to take care of myself. I just … was in disbelief,” she told Gayle King.
Tina underwent a lumpectomy to remove the cancerous tumor in August and is now cancer-free.
“I was nervous,” she recalled of her mindset going into the operating room, adding that Beyoncé, 43, Solange, 38, and a few friends visited her in the hospital for support.
After the successful surgery, the “Matriarch” author developed a serious infection that nearly forced her to miss Glamour’s 2024 Women of the Year event, where she was honored in October.
Tina remembered Beyoncé noticing she seemed off and urging her not to go to the ceremony.
“She was like, ‘Your health is more important. Don’t go,’” the fashion designer said.
But Tina noted that she wanted to accept the award in person to celebrate her next chapter.
“A lot of my life, I just refused to be recognized. I would never take an award. I would never want the attention to me,” she said.
“This was my saying, ‘I deserve this.’”
