She found out that she is descended from a slave owner.
Delving into one's family tree is both a daunting and exciting experience. No-one really knows what lies in the murky depths of their ancestry but, occasionally, revelations are to be had and we discover something profound. Beyonce had one such revelation when she found out that she is descended from a slave owner.
Beyonce at a Tidal event
It's not uncommon to be a black person in America and have many ancestors who were slaves, but it's perhaps less common to realise that one of those slaves eventually married their owner. That brought up a lot of questions for Beyonce, who spoke about what she found out in an interview with Vogue.
'I researched my ancestry recently and learned that I come from a slaveowner who fell in love with and married a slave', she said. 'I had to process that revelation over time. I questioned what it meant and tried to put it into perspective.'
Indeed, you can look at a situation like that and find real remorse and forgiveness, and genuine love, in a place which eschewed such things. Or you can see it as a different type of slavery, one that sent a rift between spouses throughout history.
'I come from a lineage of broken male-female relationships, abuse of power, and mistrust', Beyonce confessed. 'Only when I saw that clearly was I able to resolve those conflicts in my own relationship. Connecting to the past and knowing our history makes us both bruised and beautiful.'
Indeed, not only were her parents eventually separated, she and husband Jay-Z faced their own challenges with rumours that he was unfaithful in their marriage. That's an obstacle they have since learned to overcome, and Beyonce believes there is some significance in her strange to rebuild her relationship.
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'I now believe it's why God blessed me with my twins [Rumi and Sir]. Male and female energy was able to coexist and grow in my blood for the first time', she added. 'I pray that I am able to break the generational curses in my family and that my children will have less complicated lives.'
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