Tina Knowles — like many mothers before her — was content to let her contributions to her family’s businesses go unsaid. That’s changing.
As the matriarch of a family that’s produced two billionaires, her daughter Beyoncé and son-in-law Jay-Z, she’s been quietly at the forefront of their careers, helping to guide, strategize, and often lead decisions that have made the entire family successful.
Knowles isn’t afraid to say she’s not just Beyoncé’s and Solange’s mother, though she doesn’t hold back on that bragging right. She’s also the vice chairwoman of Cécred, the hair-care company she started with Bey, and the chairwoman of the singer’s philanthropic effort, BeyGOOD.
“I’m not trying to toot my own horn or get credit for things,” she told me measuredly on the rooftop of the Hôtel Martinez in Cannes during the Cannes Lions Festival last month, “but I have, in my later life, realized that if you don’t take your credit for things that other people will do it.”
Knowles was a panelist at FQ Beach during Cannes Lions, discussing her partnership and marketing campaign with Ancestry, which began while she was promoting her 2025 memoir, “Matriarch.”
Knowles reached out to the genealogy company after using the product to connect some dots while researching the Louisiana Creole family history detailed in her book, Ancestry CMO Attica Jaques told Business Insider.
“When we met with her, she knew a lot about her mother’s side, but not a lot about her father’s side, so we also did some discoveries there for her,” Jaques continued. “But it was just a genuine, authentic partnership because she used our product to tell her story.”
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Business Insider sat down to speak with Knowles about embracing greater recognition for her work, the business philosophies she’s taught her daughters, and what’s next for her culinary company, Mama Tina’s Gumbo, after its bumpy start at the Houston Rodeo earlier this year.
Business Insider: I want to start here because people often talk about you as the matriarch, the architect of your family. When it comes to your businesses — you spoke about being the vice chairwoman of Cécred, the chairwoman of BeyGOOD — where do you think you’re being underestimated in terms of your contributions?
Tina Knowles: I think that the world, as a whole, underestimates my contributions. That’s always been the way it was from the very beginning, even with Destiny’s Child, and I was perfectly fine with it because I’m a behind-the-scenes person, so I actually liked it.
But in my later years, now, it irritates me a bit — when people assume that I just follow my kids around, and their life is my life. Whereas they are very important to me, I play a really strong role in their businesses and their careers. And not only that, I have my own careers that have been very successful.
It’s funny, because, you know, when I get an assistant, I have this recurring thing that they say to me, and they’re like, “Miss Tina, I had no idea that you did as much as you do.”
You’re already a leader. You have many leadership titles. What do you think is your secret sauce? Like, I know for me, there are things I’m good at; there are things I’m bad at. Don’t ask me to do “the how.” I’m the visionary. So, what is your secret sauce?
I think my superpower is that I am balanced. In my career, I’ve met extremely creative people who are just geniuses at being creative, but they do not balance it with the business knowledge. And I’ve met people that are — straight out — the best business people, but they don’t have really a lot of creativity. And I think my superpower is that I’ve always been balanced. I’m a serious creator and visionary, but I also know that things have to be paid for.
You spoke about BeyGOOD, the charity started by your daughter Beyoncé, onstage at FQ Beach in Cannes, where you’re the chairwoman, overseeing its mission. So you’re at the intersection of for-profit and nonprofit. When there’s an issue, a cause that you’re really passionate about, how do you decide if it’s for profit or for your nonprofit endeavor?
It’s kind of organic. It just kind of happens. You know instantly if something is for the business, or it’s for nonprofit, for your charities. I’ve always been involved in nonprofits or charity work because I feel like that’s why I’m so blessed. I believe in tithing, and that’s how I get it back. In fact, my goal is in the next two years, I will transition into full-time philanthropic work. Yeah. That’s my goal.
The Knowles family is probably one of the most successful business families in modern times. And I’m sure you all talk about — well, maybe this is an assumption, I don’t know if you talk about business all the time. Do you have boundaries for when it’s family time?
Well, you have to. I taught the girls [my daughters Beyoncé and Solange] very early on that there’s a time for business, and it’s a time for family. And when you’re with the family, that’s not a subject that you should broach.
Now, does that happen all the time? No. It depends on what the deadlines are, what we’re doing, and we’ll talk about it, but one thing about my family, one of us will set the boundary and say, “OK, I don’t want to talk about that anymore. Let’s get off that subject.”
And Beyoncé is really the best person for that. She’s like, “We’re not talking about business today.” Because if you don’t do that, you’ll lose your mind.
So I was at your pop-up at the Houston Rodeo, Mama Tina’s Gumbo. Is that just a pop-up, or will it be extended into a product line? Where do you see the vision of that?
Yeah, for sure. It’s going to be eventually. We got to first wait until it cools off because it’s really, you know, we went down there, and it was hot, and so, yeah, definitely. It’s a plan.
Before they were global sensations, what was the earliest business lesson you taught your daughters?
The earliest business lesson was always about budgets. My granddaughter, when she was a little girl, I think she was maybe about 3, and I took her to Toys R Us, and I was like, “Listen, I’m not your mama, so I’m on a budget.” And she said, “Budgets, budgets, budgets. That’s all I hear about is budgets,” and she was 3 years old. You’ve got to pay for your art. So I think that was the most valuable lesson.
What’s the most profitable thing you’ve ever taught your family that had nothing to do with money?
It’s that family comes first. Mm hmm. Yeah, for sure. … You know, you can have all the money in the world and be miserable.
You have to balance your life and make it just as important to live your life, and have fun, and laugh, and listen to music, and be silly, and not be serious. That is the most valuable thing you can learn.
And when you’re putting on music, being silly, what’s the one thing that you put on? What’s your go-to song?
Oh, for me, it’s the Isley Brothers. It’s Marvin Gaye. It’s Sade.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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