The Rules About Being Friends With Beyonce
Beyoncé Knowles Carter is arguably the greatest living performer and the biggest star in the world. Her decades of perfectionism and incomparable work ethic make her a celebrity even to other celebrities.
Unfortunately for the Beyhive, her ever so loyal fanbase, we couldn't all grow up with Beyoncé and build a career from a Grammy-winning girl group called Destiny's Child, thus establishing a life-long friendship with Queen Bey, like Kelly Rowland did. So how did other celebrities join her inner circle?
For starters, friends of the award-winning artist show the secret to staying close to Beyoncé is respecting her privacy.
Despite mega-world fame, Beyoncé is notoriously protective of how much access the public gets to her personal life. With limited interaction with fans, limited interaction with the press, and limited time out partying in Hollywood, it's no question her closest pals have their lips sealed.
Friends like Michelle Williams only go so far as to praise the artist for her work, rather than share intimate details. It is because of this level of privacy that Beyoncé was able to drop a surprise self-titled album in 2013.
But for the star's inner circle, does privacy go so far as to requiring non-disclosure agreements?
At least one pal had to sign an NDA
After the release of DJ Khaled's "Top Off" featuring Jay-Z and Beyoncé Knowles Carter in 2019, fans wondered if Beyoncé's lyrics "If they're tryna party with the queen, They gon' have to sign a non-disclosure" was about comedian Tiffany Haddish.
Here's the backstory. According to ELLE, Haddish attended an after-party for one of Jay-Z's concerts in Los Angeles back in 2018. At the party, another celebrity reportedly bit Beyoncé and Haddish was the one to spill the tea to the public.
The comedian later went on Instagram Live to tell fans she couldn't share any more details about the night because she signed an NDA.
"Look, once you sign an NDA, see if you all would've asked me this, you know, back when I did the interview...like a month and a half ago before [I could've talked about who the biter is but], you know, NDAs are real, y'all. NDAs are real so I'm not saying s*** about nothing," said Haddish at the time (via ELLE).
The night of the party was the first time Haddish had met Beyoncé, and it seems the comedian learned her lesson about keeping quiet about outings with Beyoncé. She later tweeted, "I love Beyonce...Everything she said rang so real to me. Just know I will sign A NDA any day for Beyoncé. But also know this, I will fight for Beyoncé. I Love that woman she is a Gift from God" (via People).
There are perks to being friends with Beyonce
Aside from the necessary privacy, there is a benefit to being friends with the Queen.
In case watching celebrity friends of Beyoncé Knowles Carter receive trunks of her IVY Park x Adidas collection wasn't enough, actress Reese Witherspoon shared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that Mr. and Mrs. Carter were more than willing to share champagne at the 2020 Golden Globes. The couple then sent Witherspoon more champagne delivered straight to her front door, to which the actress joked, they're just "really, really good friends."
Speaking to Variety, fellow Texan Megan Thee Stallion shared how her friendship with Beyoncé has also evolved. From collaborating on the "Savage Remix" single to being invited to the Carter New Year's Eve Party, the rapper said, "In the first five minutes of the conversation, I felt like I've been knowing her all my life. She treated me like family, and now I feel like I am family. We talk all the time."
Free champagne? Free clothes? Talks all the time? Seems like befriending Beyoncé has its perks.
Beyoncé's friends are also fans
Perhaps the best way to know the rules behind being in Beyoncé Knowles Carter's inner circle of close friends is to look at the singer's lyrics.
In her 2018 collaboration "FRIENDS" with husband Jay-Z, Mrs. Carter describes her friends as those that pray for her and support her art. They're "better than your friends."
"See better things for me / Want better days for me unselfishly / They pray and pray for me, they pray and pray for me / Whenever I'm in need / They in the backseat with the aux bumpin' B," Bey sings.
Many A-list celebrities who consider themselves friends with the singer are also vocal fans. According to E! News, former First Lady Michelle Obama chose Beyoncé as the one person she would want to be on a deserted island with in an interview on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. "She's a sweetheart," Mrs. Obama said. "She's smart, she's creative, she's a great mother, she loves her family. She's just a low-key lady—we have a lot in common that way. Except I can't sing...I can't dance." Obama has been spotted multiple times at Beyoncé's concerts too.
If listening to Beyoncé is a main entry point into her friend group, a lot of us are way closer to joining the circle than we think.