Mathew Knowles says he’s been battling breast cancer.
The father of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles opened up on “Good Morning America” in a segment that’s airing Wednesday. In a teaser clip for the chat shared Tuesday, the text ”FIGHT WITH BREAST CANCER” appears onscreen as interviewer Michael Strahan asks Knowles: ”How was it to tell your family about the diagnosis?”
Also Tuesday, Knowles tweeted that there would be a “special announcement” made during his intimate “GMA” chat, presumably referring to, at least in part, the news of his diagnosis.
TOMORROW ON @GMA: @MathewKnowles, the father of @Beyonce and @solangeknowles, sits down one-on-one with @michaelstrahan and reveals his fight with breast cancer. See the EXCLUSIVE interview only on GMA tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/Gmojh40ARb
— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 1, 2019
Knowles, 67, the businessman and Beyoncé’s former manager, divorced Beyoncé and Solange’s mom, Tina Knowles, in 2009 after 29 years of marriage and fathering a child with actress Alexsandra Wright. In 2011, Beyoncé fired him as her manager. He married model Gena Charmaine Avery in 2013.
As the former manager of Destiny’s Child, Knowles regularly shares supportive “throwback” posts of the group and has talked about developing a Destiny’s Child musical.
USA TODAY has reached out to Beyoncé’s reps for comment.
Newsweek reports Knowles in the GMA segment said he is now “doing very well” after surgery in July and has changed his outlook on life. He’s stopped drinking, and he now exercises and meditates. He also revealed he has a mutated form of the BRCA2 gene, which makes him more susceptible to cancer.
“Things that used to be important, Michael, are not important to me now,” he told Strahan. “[I] just look at the world differently.”
Knowles also said he wanted to urge men, especially black men — who have a higher incidence of breast cancer — to be more aware and get tested.
The “GMA” interview arrives at the start of Breast Cancer Awareness month. According to the American Cancer Society, male breast cancer is rare. In 2015, about 1 percent of new breast cancer cases were diagnosed in men.
Read more at usatoday.com.
