Beyoncé's Mom Tina Knowles Defends Scolding Rumi On Stage

Buzz Feed

21-05-2025

Earlier this month, a video emerged from Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter tour, where she was joined on stage by her mom, Tina Knowles, and daughters, Blue Ivy and Rumi.
In the footage, Bey publicly congratulates Tina on her new book, Matriarch: A Memoir. She tells the crowd: "Today is a big day because my mother, who worked so hard on her book, she has the number one book on the New York Times bestseller list. Everybody, please say: 'Congratulations, Mama T!''
However, fans were more distracted by 7-year-old Rumi, who is clearly incredibly overexcited to be there. The little girl is clapping her hands and jumping up and down throughout the video, and at one point in the clip, she goes over to her mom and seemingly tries to reach for the microphone.
Tina can be seen pulling Rumi back, and looks as though she sternly says something to her.
At this point, 13-year-old Blue reaches her hand out for Rumi to stand with her. Afterward, when it's time for Tina and the girls to leave the stage, Tina can be seen guiding Rumi to the side and hugging Blue before taking her hand and walking both girls off.
The video divided people at the time, with some arguing that Tina was too hard on her young granddaughter. One person commented: 'I really don't like how mama T is treating her grandchild😞''I don't like the grandmother's reaction to Rumiì🥺,' somebody else echoed, while another popular comment read: '🤣 Tina ain't no sweet grandma she strict 🤣 she like girl stay put 🤣'Others compared Tina's reaction to Blue's, with one person writing: 'Blue has more patience with Rumi than her grandmother has.'Another said: 'I'm so disappointed with Tina's lack of patience and empathy towards Rumi, s/o to Blue Ivy for having a patience, understanding and soft towards her younger sister.'
But 71-year-old Tina has brushed off the criticism in a new interview with Gayle King, where she admitted: 'People have written all kinds of narratives about it.'
'It was real, I mean, it's real life,' she went on, before quipping: 'Grandmas don't play.'Tina then recalled what exactly was going through her mind during the incident, explaining: 'It was just that she was reaching for the mic because she wanted to say something, and I realized that, and she was pulling, and I was like, 'Oh God, that's all that needs to happen, is the mic hits her in the face.''Anticipating what the tabloid response to that would be, Tina joked that the headlines would say 'Beyoncé hit her in the face.'
Despite the online response, Tina said that it was 'so special' to join her daughter and granddaughters on stage, saying: "It was from a different perspective — I'm usually behind the stage — but it was actually fun. It was exciting."