Even though Destiny's Child was a chart-topping group, it was clear there was a standout star
in the group.
We now know her as a style icon, advocate for empowerment and expression, actress, filmmaker
and more.
Let's go behind the wind machine and explore the untold truth of Beyonce.
Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z are the wealthiest and most influential power couple in music
since, well, ever.
She's on the Forbes list of "America's Wealthiest Self-Made Women" with assets totaling $400
million.
And according to the same magazine, he's got a net worth of around $900 million as of 2018.
That's an incredible amount of wealth, and they accumulated it, for the most part, individually,
and definitely through a lot of hard work and savvy investing.
To protect their money, their stuff, and themselves, Beyonce and Jay-Z created a prenup agreement
prior to getting married in 2008, according to Radar Online.
After reportedly suffering through marital strife in 2015 and living separate lives inside
their giant Beverly Hills home, the couple figured they ought to revise that prenup.
So, they created a "post-nup," which outlines how their combined $1.4 billion fortune would
be split should the two ever divorce.
It also allows for full joint custody of their children.
Some celebrities keep gossip magazines and websites well stocked with tales of their
tumultuous love lives, connecting with, and then breaking up with, a new and different
partner with remarkable consistency.
But Beyonce is not that kind of star.
Her romantic world is fascinating because it never seems to change much, aside from
the occasional rumbling of problems in her marriage to Jay-Z.
In fact, according to Beyonce, she's only ever had two romantic relationships in her
entire life.
She told The Telegraph,
"When I was 12, 13, I had my first boyfriend, and he was my boyfriend 'till I was 17.
That was my only experience with a guy, and since then I've only had one other boyfriend
in my life, Jay."
Okay, but back to the guy who didn't be come a rap mogul.
His name was Lyndall Locke, and he spoke to The Sun about that star-crossed romance.
Beyonce's Destiny's Child cohort Kelly Rowland introduced the pair at church in 1993, and
they were each other's first kiss.
The couple remained together as Destiny's Child's fame increased.
Locke said,
"The bigger star she became, the more I didn't think I was good enough.
One night, when she was out of town, I went to a bar with friends and ended up sleeping
with another woman."
Locke says he cheated on Beyonce "about five times," and revealed the indiscretions after
they broke up.
In the age of camera-enabled smartphones that can capture and spread information worldwide
in seconds, it's almost impossible for a celebrity to do anything without getting noticed.
Perhaps that's why it was so baffling, and impressive, in December 2013 when Beyonce's
self-titled, fifth album suddenly appeared on iTunes.
Beyonce had accomplished the massive task of recording a whole album, 14 audio tracks
and 17 music videos to boot, and the equally massive task of keeping it all under wraps.
In a Facebook video timed to the release of the album, Beyonce revealed that she feels
like people experience music differently these days.
"I remember seeing 'Thriller' on TV with my family.
It was an event."
She went on to admit,
"I miss that immersive experience.
Now people only listen to a few seconds of a song on their iPods.
They don't really invest in a whole album."
So, she set out to make an album that was consumable all at once, with no fracturing
singles.
According to music industry insiders who spoke anonymously to Billboard, Beyonce finalized
the track list in late October and finished recording it around Thanksgiving.
She didn't decide on the final release date until a week before it hit the internet.
When discussing the project with Columbia Records employees, the code name "Lily" was
used.
Only a handful of iTunes executives were fully clued in on every detail of Beyonce before
its release.
Music history is full of alter egos, running the gamut from David Bowie's successful "Ziggy
Stardust" to Garth Brooks's risky "Chris Gaines" phase.
One of the more recent and most popular pop star side personalities is Beyonce's "Sasha
Fierce," the steely, ultra-confident persona that often takes over when the singer performs.
While she didn't yet have a name for this phenomenon, Beyonce thinks Sasha Fierce was
born the first time she sang in public, during a school talent show when she was in the first
grade.
She told Rolling Stone that her dance teacher urged her to do it, adding,
"I was terrified and I didn't wanna do it.
I remember walking out and I was scared, but when the music started, I don't know what
happened.
I just changed."
She admitted that the Beyonce fans see isn't day-to-day Beyonce, and explained,
"It's a transformation into that.
It's a job.
In real life I'm not like that."
The singer officially christened this other side of herself "Sasha Fierce" in 2008, just
in time for the release of the double album I Am...Sasha Fierce.
Beyonce may seem superhuman, but she's a human being like the rest of us, of course.
And like many people, she once fell down a path of despair into a big hole of sadness.
In 2000, Destiny's Child sat at the peak of its popularity, having just released the rapidly-best-selling
The Writing's on the Wall.
It was also around that time when two long-time group members quit Destiny's Child and then
sued the group's shady manager Matthew Knowles, yes, Beyonce's father, claiming he mismanaged
the band.
In 2006, Beyonce told Parade that the fallout and stress over that led her to quit eating
and hang out in her bedroom.
It was, in her words, "that lonely period," in which she also felt "attacked" by media
reports that painted her in a bad light.
She credits encouraging words from her mother for helping her out of her dark place, then
realized that she had two options at that point in time: quit music, or leave the dramatic
Destiny's Child departure in the past and move forward.
She clearly chose the latter.
It seems like the more famous a person, the more likely they are to be the subject of
conspiracy theories, plenty of people think Elvis Presley faked his death to escape fame,
or that an international group of operatives worked together to assassinate President John
F. Kennedy.
Not surprisingly, there have been plenty of conspiracy theories and rumors spread about
Beyonce.
Have you heard the one about how R&B sensation Solange isn't Beyonce's sister, but her daughter?
According to Stellar's reporting on this unfounded theory, Beyonce, who was also allegedly born
in the '70s and not 1981, as she claims, gave birth when she was 12 or 13 years old, and
that in order to avoid scandal, her parents raised Solange as Beyonce's sister, not offspring.
Another theory holds that Beyonce wasn't really pregnant with her first child Blue Ivy Carter.
According to ABC News, she allegedly suffered from health and fertility issues, and she
wore a fake bump in public, that supposedly deflated when she sat down during a televised
interview, while a surrogate carried the baby to term.
Ready for the best part, which also brings this to full-circle crazy?
The alleged donor of the egg to make that baby was Solange!
While Beyonce is certainly best known for her staggeringly successful and influential
musical contributions, she's developed a secondary career as a movie star.
Her first role came in the 2001, made-for-TV musical Carmen: A Hip Hopera, which she followed
up with Austin Powers in Goldmember.
"I actually did have to kiss, kiss Austin Powers."
She was also in a remake of The Pink Panther, and starred opposite Oscar-winner Jennifer
Hudson in Dreamgirls.
She voiced Nala in the 2019 reimagining of The Lion King, which went on to be one of
the biggest blockbusters of the decade.
Two other recent sensations could have been Beyonce vehicles, but things just didn't work
out that way.
Bill Condon, director of Dreamgirls, helmed Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast
remake, and he attempted to work with Beyonce once more.
He told Yahoo!
Entertainment,
"It wasn't a big enough part.
She would have been a good feather duster."
A remake of A Star is Born made it to screens in 2018 and starred real-life pop star Lady
Gaga as a pop star, but it nearly starred another real-life pop star, Beyonce.
Clint Eastwood was set to direct, but according to one of the film's producers in The Hollywood
Reporter, it didn't happen because:
"Beyonce got pregnant, and then Clint went off and did another movie."
In another of one Beyonce's acting performances, she portrayed legendary singer Etta James
in Cadillac Records, a 2008 movie about the influential record label Chess Records.
It earned critical acclaim, and for Beyonce, nominations from the Golden Globes, BET Awards,
Grammys, and Satellite Awards.
But she took a lot more home with her than a paycheck and accolades.
According to the Independent, James struggled with a heroin dependency in the 1960s and
1970s.
To research this side of James' life, Beyonce visited Phoenix House, a Brooklyn addiction
rehabilitation facility that also provides job training for residents.
According to MTV News, Beyonce said,
"I felt like they needed something that was geared towards women."
Her solution was a salon.
After visiting her mother's salon often as a child, Beyonce said,
"[I] saw that a salon was a place for women to socialize, share stories, cry, laugh, and
get advice."
"Most importantly I saw the joy it brought my mother, sorry, knowing that she was a part
of their transformation."
And so, in 2010 Beyonce and her mother, Tina Knowles, opened the Beyonce Cosmetology Center
at Phoenix House, which provides a seven-month cosmetology course.
Beyonce pledged a $100,000 recurring annual donation.
If anyone is a contender to someday take home an EGOT, which is an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar,
and a Tony, it's Beyonce.
The Grammy Awards have honored her 24 times, and she's got eight Emmy Award nominations
for her variety shows and Super Bowl halftime show.
It's reasonable to think she'll win one of those someday, and maybe a Tony for some future
Broadway musical performance.
Also, Beyonce has acted in, sang in, and written songs for lots of movies, and yet an Academy
Award nomination has proved surprisingly elusive.
She put in a powerhouse performance in the 2006 film adaptation of the musical Dreamgirls,
and also co-wrote "Listen," one of her character's big numbers.
That song earned a nomination for outstanding Original Song, but Beyonce wouldn't have received
an Oscar had it won.
According to MTV, the Academy Awards enacted a rule in 2005 which capped the number of
individuals that could be nominated for one project at three.
Then it decided that Beyonce didn't contribute as much to "Listen" as its other songwriters.
More than a decade later, Beyonce co-wrote "Spirit" for the remake of The Lion King.
It made it to the Academy's Original Song short list, but ultimately wasn't among the
final nominees.
People absolutely freak out whenever Beyonce does just about anything, but in a good, celebratory
way, whether it's revealing a pregnancy at the MTV Video Music Awards, or releasing a
secret album.
She's an icon and hero to a lot of people, so it's rare that she does anything that's
met with scorn and derision.
What went down on the Fourth of July in 2003 is one of the few dings on an otherwise spotless
career.
Beyonce had just launched her solo career that summer, and NBC booked her to perform
on its Manhattan-based Independence Day special.
She did perform, dancing and singing next to Grant's Tomb, the burial site of U.S. Civil
War general and U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant.
According to the Associated Press, the Grant Monument Association president filed complaint
letters with NBC, the Department of the Interior, and the National Park Service, calling out
Beyonce's work as, quote,
"Patently inappropriate [and featuring] lascivious choreography."
Beyonce never commented on the matter, although she's yet to dance on any other presidential
memorials.
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