Beyonce opens up a bit about Jay-Z
Translated from a Dutch magazine:
Beyoncé has changed. Love has calmed her down and made her thinking about what she really wants in life. Because there is more than just hard work. “I used to be always running from one project to the next. The words ‘free time’ weren’t even in my vocabulary,” she tells us. “I started to look more and more like my parents, they are the biggest workaholics I know. And I found out that this life didn’t really make me happy. So I decided to slow it down for a while.” ‘Slowing down’ in Beyoncé’s case still means two films in one year (Cadillac Records and Obsessed) plus a world tour. And in between all that she showed off her musical skills with Hugh Jackman at the Oscars, and she sang at the inauguration of Barack Obama. The super star starts laughing when we confront her with this. “And yet I feel like I have more rest, time to do things with Jay, to walk in the park or to cook.”
Wedding dress
Beyoncé secretly married in April 2008 to rapper and producer Jay-Z, whom she at the time had been dating for six years. While other celebrities sell their wedding photos to the tabloids for millions, we do still not even know what kind of wedding dress Beyoncé was wearing. Rumors say that the dress was designed by mother Tina; a white, tight dress with a V-neck, but Beyoncé won’t say anything about this. It’s a miracle she has even admitted to being married. “I deliberately didn’t speak about it for a long time, because I believe that marriage is something very personal. People expect me to share my private life with the rest of the world because I happen to be famous. But I have a different opinion about that: my wedding is for me!”
The singer will tell Glossy that the ceremony was ‘very intimate’ and that she is ‘very, VERY happy’ as Mrs. Jay-Z. By the way, if it was up to him, they would have married a long time ago. But Bee – who herself sings If you liked it, then you shoulda put a ring on it – kept her lover waiting for a couple of years before she said yes to his proposal. “I wanted to have reached something myself first, before I could share my life with someone else. Why would you rush into a marriage if you know you’ve still got the rest of your lives to enjoy each other?”
While other stars often act like a showbiz relationship is just like any other ‘normal’ relationship, Beyoncé has a completely different opinion. “Nothing about our relation is normal, and that is because of our careers. We are both away from home a lot, under enormous pressure, and then there’s the tabloids who will try anything to ruin your relationship. I can’t count the times I’ve had to read something bad about Jay, they make up complete lies. You have to be very strong and certain to be able to say each time: this is not true, I know my husband and he would never do this. I can understand why many celebrity-marriages don’t last.”
Relationship crisis
It annoys the singer that showbiz relationships are supposed to be perfect. “Of course Jay and I fight, we go through the same phases as any other couple. The problem with being famous is that one angry look from me to him is immediately interpreted as a huge relationship crisis. Hello, everyone has arguments and discussions with their partner. Personally I like them, because it means that you are ventured (?) to each other. And by the time we go to bed, we’ve always made up and I realize that Jay is the one I want to be with more than anyone else.”
Beyoncé admits that sometimes she’s still a bit lost in her relationship. “Men are complicated human beings, they are on a totally different emotional level than women and that makes it hard sometimes. On the other hand, they have to deal with our emotional moments, and especially for a ‘cool’ person like Jay that can be hard. But hey, why shouldn’t you have to fight and work a little bit for the person you love? Happiness is a choice and I decided that I choose to be happy. And yes, that can cost you all your energy at times, but to me it’s worth it!”
To keep things sexy and exciting after so many years, you sometimes have to do a little bit extra, the singer says. “Sometimes you need to remind your lover why he fell for you in the first place. Pull out that sexy dress, wear some nice heels, and the passion will be back in no time…”
Her relationship with twelve year older Jay-Z is Beyoncé’s first, not taking into account some innocent dates in high school. “I was always working on my career, and always had my father around me, which of course doesn’t help if you want to meet nice men. I remember that at my eighteenth I thought: I’ll never find a guy! I saw girls my age going out, while I had to be in bed early because I had to get up at five the next morning to rehearse my dance steps.”
Tyrannical
Father Mathew Knowles is known as quite tyrannical, especially when the careers of his daughters are concerned. “My father is a business man, and that can cause tension. When I was younger, we’d have disagreements on a regular basis. He felt that because he was my manager and my father, he had the right to say what was best for me, and of course I never felt the same way. But now that I’m a grown woman I realize that he was right most of the time. And he also respects the woman I’ve become. Sometimes we still have arguments, but it’s always about work; we hardly have any discussions about things in our personal lives.”
She describes her mother, Tina Knowles, as her best friend. “She knows exactly when she should be my mother and when she should be my friend. I’ve lost many girlfriends over the years, but my mother always stayed. She only wants what’s best for me, and what I find very important: she is honest, and I really need that in this world where you sometimes don’t know if people say something because they mean it or because they want to please you.”
Beyoncé doesn’t want to hear anything about the stories that mama Tina projected her own wish to become rich and famous on her daughter by pushing her into the showbiz world. “I think it’s unfair to say that my mother forced me, she is the most selfless person I know and often put herself in the second place because I had only one dream: to become a singer. She was strict during my teen years, but I think that without her help I would have never become the disciplined person I am today.”
Pregnant
If we ask her if Beyoncé wants to become a mom too, she straightforward says: “Yes, of course I want to be a mom, more than anything,” but she quickly adds: “Now don’t go writing that I’m pregnant, because that is definitely not the case. Children need order and regularity and that is not something Jay and I could give them right now. But when it’s time, I hope to have a daughter with whom I am just as close as I am with my mother. For now I am just going to keep practicing on my sister Solange’s son. By the way, I was in the room when she gave birth to him, and that traumatized me a little bit, haha.”
Even though Beyoncé liked to be her diva alter-ego Sasha Fierce when she’s on stage, diva behavior is not something that fits into her personal life. When it comes to Beyoncé, you won’t hear any stories about crazy celebrity demands and assistants who are being treated like slaves. “I see a lot of celebs who are very unhappy and let off their steam on the people around them. Their life revolves around being famous and nothing else. I’d never want to live on my own diva-planet, I prefer to keep both feet on the ground. I want to be normal, for as far as that’s possible in this crazy showbiz world.”
In the twelve years she’s been at the top, she always wore underwear when getting out of a car, she didn’t once leave a club while drunk and she stayed with the same man. Beyoncé is a proper lady with a spotless reputation. “Some people call me too well-behaved, I call it wise. Maybe I would go out more if I wasn’t famous, I don’t know. But in my situation going out isn’t a lot of fun. It feels like I’m dancing in a golden cage and everyone is watching me, hoping I’ll fall over.” Drugs never appealed to the super star and alcohol she can’t handle very well. “I’m drunk after two glasses and then I get very sleepy. I’m not a lot of fun then.”
Junk food
Her only ‘sin’ is food. “I love fried fish, shrimps, pecan nut ice cream, pasta, crisps, chocolate cookies, pizza… unfortunately I gain weight real quick, and all that unhealthy food goes straight to my butt and hips,” she says. Although Beyoncé cherishes her curves, she also has periods that the weighing machine doesn’t make her very happy. “There are days I just want to get back into bed because I feel so fat.” Still Beyoncé refuses to starve herself like a lot of other stars do. In the promotional video for her tour, she provocatively wears a Thierry Mugler-dress with a special corset that makes her hips seem really big. “Every woman looks better with a little bit of meat on her hips, who decided that out-sticking bones are attractive? It definitely wasn’t a man; men don’t like really skinny girls. We women tell each other that we should starve ourselves, but I won’t do that. I’d rather be a little less perfect, at least my body is real!”