JAY-Z OPENS UP ABOUT CHEATING ON BEYONCÉ
‘I like to believe we’re in a better place today,’ rapper tells Letterman on his new talk show
To kick off his interview with rap mogul Jay-Z, David Letterman held up his hand and asked the audience, “We have here married people with families?”
He added, “Families, I think it’s safe to say, are pretty much trouble-free.”
That intro — on the fourth episode of Letterman’s freeranging interview show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman, which dropped Friday on Netflix — foreshadowed the 50-minute conversation during which Jay-Z was strikingly candid about his own family. The rapper opened up about infidelity in his marriage to Beyoncé, his mother coming out as a lesbian and his absentee father.
On his marriage to Beyoncé
Letterman saved the most hot-button question for the end of the interview, pausing before saying, “You and I have one other thing in common, and I have to be cautious how I articulate this.
“A few years ago, I got myself into some trouble, and the situation was my responsibility and my fault,” he added, “I did something that I had no business doing and I regret it, and since then I have tried to acknowledge that mistake and be a better person.” Facing blackmail threats in 2009, the married late-night host admitted to cheating on his wife, Regina Lasko, by having sex with female members of his staff.
Jay-Z also became headline fodder for cheating on his wife, Beyoncé. Speculation about the rapper’s infidelity began in 2014 when a video surfaced of his sister-in-law Solange Knowles attacking him in an elevator. Those rumours gained steam with Beyoncé’s 2016 record
Lemonade, which contained several semi-veiled references to cheating. Jay-Z finally admitted his transgression in a November interview.
“At the time, the pain that I caused myself was the fear that I had blown up my family,” Letterman told the rapper. “I never talked to a person who had been in that situation. And I’m wondering if this rings a bell with you.”
Indeed, it did. Jay-Z said he didn’t have the emotional tools required for a marriage but, through therapy and Beyoncé’s support, he’s working toward gaining them.
“For a lot of us, especially where I grew up and men in general, we don’t have emotional cues from when we were young. Our emotional cue is ‘Be a man. Don’t cry,’ ” he said, mentioning his song “Song Cry,” in which he raps: “I can’t see ’em coming down my eyes, so I gotta make the song cry.”
“Much like you, I have a beautiful wife who was understanding and who knew I’m not the worst of what I’ve done.
“We did the hard work of going to therapy,” Jay-Z added. “We love each other, so we really put in the work for years.” Because of that, “I like to believe we’re in a better place today. I’m proud of the father and the husband that I am today.”
On his mother, Gloria Carter, coming out as a lesbian
One touching song on Jay-Z’s 2017 album 4:44 is “Smile,” which reveals that his mother, Gloria Carter, is gay.
The rapper told Letterman he has long known that his mother is a lesbian, but it wasn’t until he was recording that album that the two spoke about it.
“The only thing about that experience for me is her,” he said. “Imagine having to live your life as someone else and you think you’re protecting your kids.”
He said the conversation was so emotional that he began crying. The next day, he sat down and wrote “Smile.”
On making peace with Adnis Reeves, his absentee father
Jay-Z’s lyrics often centre on his father, Adnis Reeves, who abandoned Carter, Jay-Z and his three siblings when the musician was 11, leaving behind a deep emotional scar.
But time, Jay-Z said, helped him better understand his father and the circumstances leading to his absence. Reeves’ brother was killed in the projects and finding the murderer became something of an obsession for him.
“Someone would call and say, ‘I just seen the guy who killed your brother,’ ” Jay-Z said. “He would get up from his bed — his bed with his children — and he would take his gun and he’d leave the house.”
As a young man, Jay-Z felt abandoned by and furious with his father. But now, “I have compassion for what (my dad) went through, which was anger.”