Tina Knowles discusses life after divorcing Beyoncé’s father

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Tina Knowles, mother of famous singer Beyoncé, recently opened up about her struggles with low self-esteem and finding love again following her 2011 divorce.

Knowles, 60, made the comments during a talk as the keynote speaker at the International Women & Money Leadership luncheon in Houston last week.

Opening up about her split from Beyoncé’s father and former manager, Mathew Knowles, Tina Knowles said, “One day, my world just exploded, and I knew that I had to get a divorce. And at 58-years-old, that’s a very hard, difficult thing. It does something to your whole self-esteem and psyche, because I had been married for 33 years.”

When her ex-husband got remarried in 2013, Tina Knowles also admitted to worrying about “where [she was] gonna find somebody at 59-years-old.”

During the speech for the Texas Women’s Empowerment Foundation, Knowles went on to say that getting back into dating at 59 was tricky and that she didn’t just jump back in. About the time following her divorce, Knowles said, “It gave me the courage to take some time off. I started reading my art books. I love art, but I had never had the time. I started traveling.”

But eventually, the fashion designer and businesswoman decided to take the plunge back into the dating waters, admitting that “I had just lost all of myself, so I realize now that part of the low self-esteem was, yes, being 58 and having to start all over again, and the other part is that I just lost myself.”

While she struggled at first, asking friends “where do I meet men,” a blind date picked up her spirits, Knowles saying of the encounter, “It was so good for my self-esteem to have somebody to say, ‘You look nice,’ to give you a flower, to take me out. So I went out on a couple of dates with him, but I knew he wasn’t the one. But it got me past that.” A little thereafter, Knowles found love in an old friend, Richard Dawson, telling the audience that she called him up asking if he knew of any available men. As it turns out, Dawson wound up being that very man.

Of their romance, Knowles said, “So the next night, he took us out dancing, and we just had a good time…. So he came to Houston, I went to LA afterwards, and it’s been now a year and five months.  I’m in a committed relationship with that handsome man! And I’m the happiest I’ve been in a long, long time.”

During the almost thirty-minute speech, Knowles also recounted anecdotes and other stories from her life, including the time she ruined Destiny Child’s first shot at a record deal — only for the group to receive a far more lucrative and generous contract just a few months later.