Tina Knowles is baring all in her new memoir, even down to the details of her divorce from Richard Lawson.
The Cécred vice chairwoman recently sat down for an interview with Oprah, where she gave more insight on an excerpt from her newly released memoir, Matriarch. In the book, Tina recalls how supportive her friend Tyler Perry was when she made the difficult decision to leave her marriage.
Knowles and Lawson, who had been longtime friends, got married 2015 and divorced in 2023. While speaking with Oprah, Tina revealed what she told Perry about the split, saying that while the filmmaker was saddened by the breakup, he ultimately offered his full support.
“I told [Tyler] what happened, and he loves Richard also. He said, ‘I’m very sad to hear that,’ but you know, this marriage isn’t bringing out the best in me.”
“I have finally found my worth, and I know that I deserve to be happy,” Knowles continued. “I know I deserve for somebody to be happy when they see me and to celebrate me. And it’s not doing it for me. It’s bringing out the worst in me, and it’s gotta stop.”
She went on to share that Perry, showed unwavering support for her decision to prioritize herself, bringing her to tears. He also gave her props her setting a powerful example not only for her daughters, Beyoncé and Solange, but also for her grandson Julez, so he can learn how important it is to value and respect women.
Now, it’s been nearly two years since her divorce, and the 71-year-old is opening up to PEOPLE about her dating life for this week’s World’s Most Beautiful issue.
When the entrepreneur was asked if she is currently seeing someone, Knowles confirmed that she is back on the dating scene.
“I am spending time with a friend,” she told the outlet, adding that he’s a “very nice gentleman. We’ll see what happens.”
While the matriarch admits that she has “not lost a night of sleep” over her decision to leave Lawson, that wasn’t the case in her first marriage. In her book, Tina is opening up for the first time about his decades of infidelity, leaving her with the difficult decision to leave the marriage after 31 years.
“I was caught in this dance with him, each doing the same steps over and over: He would cheat or act up, and I would say I’d had enough. He would beg for forgiveness, crying and promising to get better,” she wrote. “But this is what married people did, I told myself.”
The couple eventually split in 2011, with Knowles admitting it took her time to fully walk away from the relationship. She tells PEOPLE, however, that was not the case with Lawson. Cnding her second marriage easier was made easier by, “age, experience, confidence, a lot of things.”
