Beyoncé's mom, Tina Knowles, reveals major health diagnosis in new memoir

NEW YORK: Many of Tina Knowles’ fondest childhood memories are of sitting under a pecan tree as her mother recited the history of their family, stretching back generations.

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Now, the mother of Beyoncé and Solange has given her own story to the world with “Matriarch: A Memoir,” out this week. “Beyoncé and Solange have been busy since they were little kids working, and Kelly (Rowland). ... I've told them stories, but I don’t even know if they really listened,” said the 71-year-old Knowles. “When you're young, it’s very few people that want to hear those stories about old times.”

At 59, Knowles began recording voice notes of that history — adding in her contributions — after contemplating her mortality following her divorce from Mathew Knowles after a three-decade marriage. The recordings were meant only for her grandkids and future great-grandchildren, before eventually becoming book’s foundation. The 432-page Oprah's Book Club selection explores a vast range of topics, including her enslaved great-grandmothers, her entrepreneurial spirit, the Houston childhoods of Beyoncé and Solange, her infidelity-plagued first marriage, Destiny’s Child’s struggle to get a record deal, and the blatant racism her family experienced navigating a segregated United States. (She was once allowed to briefly sit in the front of a whites-only bus as a child, disguised by her fair skin tone.)