Jay-Z admits at last: Yes, I was unfaithful to Beyonce
THEIR nine-year marriage has been plagued by rumours of infidelity – with Beyonce even writing songs about her husband’s alleged affairs.
Now Jay-Z has finally come clean and admitted to cheating on his wife.
The Grammy-winning rapper, real name Shawn Carter, said issues from his childhood led to him shutting down emotionally, which eventually caused him to be unfaithful.
In a candid interview, the 47-year- old said: ‘The hardest thing is seeing pain on someone’s face that you caused, and then have to deal with yourself. You have to survive. So you go into survival mode, and when you go into survival mode, what happens? You shut down all emotions.
‘So, even with women, you gonna shut down emotionally, so you can’t connect. In my case, like, it’s deep. And then all the things happen from there: infidelity.’
He hinted that his cheating could have resulted in him leaving Beyonce, but instead he had therapy to help him deal with his past experiences and save his marriage. He told the New York Times magazine: ‘You know, most people walk away, and, like, divorce rate is like 50 per cent or something, ’cause most people can’t see themselves.’
Rumours of the rapper’s infidelity first emerged in 2013 when Beyonce’s sister, Solange Knowles, attacked Jay-Z in a lift at the Met Gala in New York.
More recently, Beyonce’s 2016 album, Lemonade, seemed to refer to her husband’s cheating, with a song about a mysterious woman she called ‘Becky with the good hair’.
Jay Z also seemed to refer to having been unfaithful on his 4:44 album this year. He wrote: ‘Look, I apologise/Often womanise/Took for my child to be born to see through a woman’s eyes.’
The couple who have three children – Blue Ivy, five, and five-month- old twins Rumi and Sir Carter – planned a joint album as marriage ‘therapy’ but eventually ended up doing solo records.