Beyoncé and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter are the very definition of a power couple.
The married music legends are each incredibly talented and influential on their own, so
together, they're virtually unstoppable.
But much of the public's perception about this notoriously private pair is shaped by
what little Bey and Jay do share about themselves.
Over the years, tantalizing mysteries about Beyoncé and Jay-Z's relationship have taken
shape.
Here are some of the strangest of those stories.
When they met
Beyoncé and Jay-Z usually keep the steamiest details of their romantic highs and lows under
wraps, and that shrug-off approach to personal attention has been consistent from the start.
These two kept their relationship a secret so long that even they don't seem to agree
on when they actually got together.
In 2008, Beyoncé told Seventeen that she was 18 when they met, and that they started
dating when she was 19 in the year 2000, but Jay-Z told Charlie Rose they'd known each
other much earlier, as far back as 1997.
"I met her ten years ago.”
“And did you say to yourself at that time, ‘Wow’?”
“I said ‘Yeah that’s a fantastic talent.’"
This could be a bit of revisionist history, since Beyoncé's ex-boyfriend, Lyndall Locke,
claimed they'd been together until she began touring with Destiny's Child in her twenties.
In a 2013 Vanity Fair interview with Jay-Z, he admitted that he and Beyoncé were just
starting to date when they appeared together in the magazine's 2001 music issue.
However, despite earlier collaborations and numerous sightings of the duo out and about,
the musicians insisted their pairing was platonic.
Jay-Z all but confirmed their romance in his Black Album single "Public Service Announcement."
The couple finally made their public debut by showing up arm in arm at the 2004 MTV Video
Music Awards.
The elevator incident
Though still not talkative about their relationship in public, the couple have presented a solid
front.
However, after making the rounds at a prestigious 2014 Met Gala in New York, a video leaked
by TMZ showed Beyoncé's sister, Solange Knowles, physically assaulting Jay-Z in a hotel elevator
as Beyoncé looked on.
Rumors swirled about the cause of the incident, but the family simply released a shared public
statement dismissing the issue as private.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z commenced with their On the Run tour as planned the following summer.
However, some subtle lyric shifts during Beyoncé's performances on tour kept tongues wagging.
She later released a "Flawless" remix with a lyric that may have attempted to put the
incident on ice:
"Of course sometimes s--- goes down when there's a billion dollars on an elevator."
The number four
It's just a coincidence that the couple were both born on the fourth of the month — Beyoncé
in September 1981 and Jay-Z in December, 1969 — but they've since adopted that shared
digit as something sacred.
They were married on April 4th, and each got tattoos of the Roman numeral four on their
fourth fingers to commemorate their union.
They gave their daughter the middle name Ivy, which is another reference to the Roman numeral
four.
There are other, less obvious, examples of their devotion to the digit, like Jay-Z's
decision to accept a vegan challenge in 2013, writing on his website,
"There's something spiritual to me about it being my 44th birthday and the serendipity
behind the number of days in this challenge; 22 (2+2=4)."
Blue Ivy
There's no doubt Beyoncé and Jay-Z both have an entrepreneurial spirit.
Consider their endless dedication to promoting his Tidal streaming service, or her release
of Ivy Park sportswear.
But when they tried to actually trademark their daughter's name with the hopes of marketing
it as a baby products line, the courts drew a line.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z reportedly applied for trademark protection for "Blue Ivy" after
their daughter was born in January 2012, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office declined
their request.
According to CNN, if they had won the rights to the name, the trademark would have put
a wedding planner, who'd been using the name for years, in a lurch.
But even without the trademark protection, the proud parents are still free to use the
name as they see fit for merchandising opportunities.
Lyrical hints
When Beyoncé dropped her visual album Lemonade in 2016, it triggered a firestorm of gossip
about the status of her marriage with Jay-Z.
Her legion of fans, the "Bey Hive," went on the hunt to discover who the "other woman"
known as "Becky with the good hair" was in her "Sorry" track.
Many wondered if the Carters were still together, given the tone of the album, but Jay-Z showed
up in the second act for the reconciliation phase.
It wasn't the first time the pair shared tough times through music.
Jay-Z's 2006 Kingdom Come track "Lost One" reflected on, quote,
"...how difficult it is to respect a lover as an autonomous human being, with separate
needs and goals and timelines than yours.
It’s one of the hardest things about a real relationship of equals.
But it's worth it."
And if appearing in the Lemonade reconciliation number wasn't enough, Jay-Z also offered his
own apology tour by way of the lyrics to the title track on his album 4:44, in which he
made no bones about his bad behavior.
It seems what the tabloids don't confirm or deny in interviews can definitely be ascertained
from this power couple's music.
Bad dad
Her marriage with Jay-Z wasn't the only relationship Beyoncé may have addressed in her Lemonade
album.
She also supposedly documented the ups and downs she's had with her father, Mathew Knowles,
who's made headlines in the past for allegedly cheating on Beyoncé's mom and fathering a
love child.
Although father and daughter appeared together after the album's drop to quell any suspicion
of a fallout, Mathew is clearly not in the loop when it comes to his daughter's life.
He revealed that he didn't find out about her second pregnancy until she announced it
to the world on Instagram.
"I was shocked.
Let me tell you what happened.
I got a first text, and I’m like, 'Why is this person saying congratulations?'
I didn't know myself."
Mathew added that he thought the surprise reveal was a strategic business decision on
the Carters' part and that he and Beyoncé later engaged in a "wonderful daughter-dad
conversation" on the subject.
Even so, a little heads up might've been nice.
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