Beyonce’s mum Tina Knowles, 71, diagnosed with breast cancer after missed screening
22 April 2025, 14:30 | Updated: 22 April 2025, 15:25
Beyonce’s mother Tina Knowles has announced she has been diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer after she missed a mammogram.
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Tina, 71, said she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, and urged other women to get checked regularly.
"It's important not to slack on your mammograms," the mother of best-selling singers Beyonce, 43, and Solange, 38, said.
Tina revealed she had rescheduled a mammogram appointment during Covid-19, and didn’t have another appointment until last year.
When she eventually had her screening, doctors found two tumours. While one was benign, the other was in Stage 1.
Doctors reportedly said they might have caught the cancer at Stage 0 if Tina kept up her regular mammogram appointments.
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She shared she was ‘blindsided’ by the diagnosis, which came as she was finishing her memoir, Matriarch.
The famous mum said she ‘struggled’ with whether to include her experience in her book.
“But I decided to share it because I think it’s a lot of lessons in it for other women,” she told People magazine.
“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.”
In her book, she reveals how her famous daughters dealt with the devastating news.
She said Beyonce “took it well, staying positive, and I could already feel her mind racing, focusing on this as a task to tackle with precision,” according to People magazine.
“Mom, we are going to take care of this,” Solange reportedly told her, as singer and actress Kelly Rowland and her other family members supported her and “became my team.”
Tina had surgery to remove the tumour last year, and also had a breast reduction.
She told the magazine she has been “doing great” since.
“Cancer-free and incredibly blessed that God allowed me to find it early,” she said.“What scares me now is not making the best of every day that I have left in this life.”
