This Lemonade may not be as juicy as you think.
J. Randy Taraborrelli — who penned the unauthorized Beyoncé biography Becoming Beyoncé: The Untold Story — gave his thoughts about why he doesn’t believe the pop diva’s new visual album is about Jay Z’s alleged cheating in a Monday, April 25 interview with Cosmopolitan.com.
Taraborrelli argued that Lemonade, which tells the story of a relationship gone awry due to the indiscretions of an unfaithful man, should not be considered a literal interpretation of Bey and Jay’s 8-year marriage.
Taraborrelli reasoned why the “Formation” singer’s latest musical effort might actually be inspired by her father, Mathew Knowles (who strayed in his marriage to Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, prior to the couple’s 2011 divorce). Beyoncé’s first boyfriend, Lyndall Locke, who cheated on the superstar pre-fame, gave Taraborrelli some insight.
“Lyndall was with her for a third of her life, and he was very clear with [me] that she feels very strongly because of what she went through with him and what she has seen in her parents’ marriage that she would not accept infidelity in a relationship,” Tarraborelli explained to the site. “But I think that she’s also a very calculating career strategist who understands how to take full advantage of the popular narrative about her life, and the popular narrative about her life right now is that she and Jay Z are having marital problems.”
“I do know from my studying of Beyoncé [that] her personality is such that if in fact she was actually having marital problems, she would not be sitting down writing songs about it for the nation to dissect and interpret. That’s not who she is,” the writer continued. “She’s too private a person to handle her marital dysfunction for the world to see and examine. More likely what she’s doing is she’s possibly writing about her mother’s marriage and what she witnessed there. That sounds like Beyoncé.”
Taraborrelli went on to say that he truly believes Beyonce, 34, would never allow her hip-hop hubby, 46, to commit adultery and get away with it.
“If Jay Z ever was unfaithful to her, she would kick him out of the house and that would be the end of their marriage,” he said. “I don’t think that she’s the kind of person who would have this kind of struggle about it. She knows what she wants and she knows what she will tolerate in a relationship.”
This is why the author feels strongly that the Destiny’s Child alum is referencing her parents’ marital strife rather than her own.
“Like I said earlier, I’m not a psychic, and I can’t know everything that goes on in Beyoncé’s world,” he added, “But it seems to me after studying her that all of this is likely more about what she’s witnessed in her mom’s marriage.”
In the most-debated Lemonade track, “Sorry,” Beyonce calls out a mysterious mistress who she describes as “Becky with the good hair.”
As Us Weekly previously reported, many thought that fashion designer Rachel Roy hinted that she was “Becky” when she posted an Instagram of herself and a few girlfriends. “Good hair don’t care, but we will take good lighting, for selfies, or self truths, always. Live in the light #nodramaqueens,” she captioned the now-deleted pic. Since Roy spoke out, the Beyhive has accused her of having inappropriate relations with Jay Z during his eight-year marriage to Beyoncé.
Roy, 42, has since denied those claims. “I want to put the speculation and rumors to rest. My Instagram post was meant to be fun and lighthearted, it was misunderstood as something other than that,” she said in a statement, via People. “There is no validity to the idea that the song references me personally. There is no truth to the rumors.”
“Consequently, online haters have targeted me and my daughters in a hurtful and scary manner, including physical threats. As a mother — and I know many mothers would agree — I feel that bullying in any form is harmful and unacceptable,” she concluded. “I would hope that the media sees the real issue here — the issue of cyber bullying — and how it should not be tolerated by anyone.”
