Inside Tina Knowles' Open Letter To Jay-Z

For over 20 years, Beyoncé and Jay-Z have been a part of each other's lives. Meeting sometime "between September of 1999 and August of 2000," per People, the pair dated for a few years while keeping their romance relatively private before taking it public with collaborations, red carpet appearances, and seemingly endless headlines swirling about the state of their relationship. They eventually got married in April 2008 before going on to have three children: daughter Blue Ivy and twins Rumi and Sir. Granted, there's more to their story than just a highly-publicized happily-ever-after.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z have had their fair share of ups and downs over the years, however, they have always seemed to work through their troubles to remain one of the most captivating (and powerful) celebrity couples around. As Harper's Bazaar noted in 2019, "the rap mogul and his triple-threat wife have 45 Grammy wins between them, and are still ruling the music industry nearly two decades into their careers."

At the same time, judging by an open letter that Beyoncé's mother, Tina Knowles, shared in February 2021, it looks like there's nothing but love, support, respect, and admiration between these family members.

Tina Knowles praised Jay-Z for paving the way for others

Jay-Z may be a wildly successful person, but his decisions don't always come without criticism. That's something that his mother-in-law, Tina Knowles, acknowledged in her open letter to her daughter's husband that she posted to Instagram on Feb. 22, 2021.

Starting off by telling her followers that her message was "a love letter to [her] son-in-law Shawn Carter," which is Jay-Z's real name, Knowles wrote, "The reason why I was led to write this was because recently at the Super Bowl we witnessed the national anthem America the Beautiful and the halftime entertainment all being super talented black people!!! Everyone was psyched about it!" 

And yet, she added, "I could not help but remember when J took on being in charge of the Entertainment at the Super Bowl and saying that things would never change unless we had someone on the inside that could make decisions." Noting that she "read all the horrible things people said calling him a sellout and hating on him big time," she pointed out that Jay-Z didn't let that stop him "doing the things that he knows are right." That also includes other major moves like creating Tidal streaming service and selling 50% of his Champagne brand, Armand de Brignac, to LVHM, the owner of Dom Pérignon.

Knowles finished by writing, "You are a bad a** brother and I hope that you continue to pave the way for others like you have in the past!! ... I love you so much!!"