In her memoir “Matriarch,” Tina Knowles drops a truth bomb that feels more like a movie plot twist than a real-life memory. The only reason she ever met Mathew Knowles, the future father of Beyoncé and Solange, was because of a brush with death in the ocean.
Tina Knowles, the fashion-savvy, fiercely wise matriarch of one of the most famous families in music, met her future husband because she nearly drowned.
The Wave That Changed Everything
It was August 1975 on the beaches of Galveston, Texas. Tina, then just 21, was enjoying a beach day with a friend named Rusty when things took a terrifying turn. A rip current, one of the ocean’s deadliest tricks, began to form. Within moments, the two were swept out into the violent waves.
Tina wrote that she tried to stay calm, but the water “sucker-punched” her and dragged her far from the shore. “This, I knew, was how people died with undercurrents,” she recalled in her book. Her childhood warnings were flashing in her mind, especially memories of a classmate who drowned in similar circumstances.
She tried swimming out and back, but the rip gripped her. Exhausted, she let herself float, saving energy while praying for rescue. She didn’t know it then, but the chain of events that would define the next few decades of her life had just begun.
© Getty Images for Diane von FurstJust when it looked like it might be the end, lifeguards, who she suspected had been “smoking” moments earlier, spotted her from the shore, assisted by a helicopter overhead. They paddled out with boogie boards and eventually helped her and Rusty return to the beach. An ambulance was waiting.
From Survivor to Soul Connection
That moment bonded Tina and Rusty in a way only shared trauma can. A few weeks later, she moved to Houston. She didn’t expect much when Rusty invited her to a low-key house party. “So I went to a simple party at some guy’s apartment in Houston,” Tina wrote.
That “guy” was Mathew Knowles. It was the most unexpected of meet-cutes, with no romantic build-up and no mutual friends orchestrating dinner. Just a house party, a near-death experience, and a friend who happened to know someone with a free apartment and a stereo system.
© WireImage31 Years of Love, Pain, and Legacy
Tina and Mathew married in 1980 and were together until 2011. Like any relationship that spans over three decades, theirs had its ups and downs. Tina is candid in her memoir about the rocky terrain of their marriage. There was love, but also betrayal. She wrote that even in the first year, signs of trouble appeared, but she believed their love was “stronger than a misstep.”
Still, the infidelity and emotional extremes eventually wore her down. “Incredibly joyous half the time… then being disgusted and heartsick over how brazen his cheating could get,” she wrote. The final blow came in 2009 when she learned Mathew had fathered a child outside their marriage.
© FilmMagicBy 2011, they made a joint decision to part ways amicably. And true to their word, they’ve continued to co-parent and collaborate, always putting family first.
Despite everything, Tina holds no bitterness. In fact, she speaks about her life like a woman who understands the bigger picture. “My journey has been filled with… so many hardships, but it’s also been filled with tremendous amounts of joy,” she told PEOPLE. “It’s been an amazing ride. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”
Tina Knowles’ “Matriarch” memoir is about fate, forgiveness, and fierce self-worth. It’s about how one terrifying moment in the ocean set off a chain of events that helped shape music history.
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