Beyonce: twins right wrongs of my ancestor
Beyoncé reveals dark secret from past and says birth was a blessing to break ‘generational curses’
Beyoncé said the birth of her twins – a boy and a girl – was God’s way of righting the wrongs of her slaveowning forebear. In a candid article, the singer also told US Vogue of her family’s “curse”, and how she had been “through hell and back” in her relationship with her husband, Jay-z.
BEYONCE believes she was “blessed” with boy and girl twins to right the wrongs of her ancestor, a slave owner who married a slave.
The singer said she connected the discovery about her family history to the arrival of her children, Rumi and Sir, who were born last year.
“I researched my ancestry recently and learned that I come from a slave owner who fell in love with and married a slave. I had to process that revelation over time. I questioned what it meant and tried to put it into perspective. I now believe it’s why God blessed me with twins. Male and female energy was able to coexist and grow in my blood for the first time.
“I pray that I am able to break the generational curses in my family and that my children will have less complicated lives,” Beyoncé said. “I come from a lineage of broken male-female relationships, abuse of power, and mistrust. 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.”
Beyoncé’s maternal family are Creole, from Louisiana, and she is believed to have French ancestry.
The 36-year-old performer wrote a candid piece for the September issue of US Vogue, which she guest edited.
She described the “crazy” pressure to regain her figure following the birth of her first child, Blue Ivy, in 2012, which led to her going back on tour only three months later while still breastfeeding. “After the birth of my first child, I believed in the things society said about how my body should look,” she said. “I put pressure on myself to lose all the baby weight in three months, and scheduled a small tour to assure I would do it… After the twins, I approached things very differently.
“I was 218lb the day I have birth to Rumi and Sir. I was swollen from toxaemia and had been on bed rest for over a month. My health and my babies’ health were in danger, so I had an emergency C-section,” she said.
The babies spent weeks in intensive care. “My husband was a soldier and such a strong support system for me. I am proud to have been a witness to his strength and evolution as a man, a best friend, and a father,” she said. “I was in survival mode and did not grasp it all until months later. Today I have a connection to any parent who has been through such an experience.”
Jay-z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, is said to have cheated on his wife in the past. Beyoncé did not go into detail but said: “I’ve been through hell and back, and I’m grateful for every scar.
“I have experienced betrayals and heartbreaks in many forms.”
She chose Tyler Mitchell, 23, to photograph her, making him the first African-american to shoot the cover of Vogue in its 125-year history. She said of her look: “It’s important for women and men to see and appreciate the beauty in their natural bodies.”
One of the most memorable moments in her career, Beyoncé said, was performing with her husband at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, the site of the 1936 Olympic Games.
“This is a site that was used to promote the rhetoric of hate, racism and divisiveness, and it is the place where Jesse Owens won four gold medals, destroying the myth of white supremacy. Less than 90 years later, two black people performed there to a sold-out stadium,” she said.
Vogue’s September 2018 issue is available from Aug 21.
‘I now believe it’s why God blessed me with twins. Male and female energy was able to coexist and grow in my blood for the first time’