Matthew Knowles claims that his daughter Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland were sexually harassed by members of Jagged Edge, an all-male R&B band, when they were 16 years old. In an interview with VladTV, Knowles, who was the manager of Beyoncé and Rowland when they were in Destiny’s Child, claims that the two were harassed on a tour bus early on in girl group’s career.
“Now remember, the girls are minors. They’re 16 years old,” Knowles said, explaining that it was his poor decision to put the teenagers on the same bus as Jagged Edge. “The guys are 21, 22 years old. I have a fiduciary duty with minors, by the law. There’s a certain way I have to manage that.”
He continued, “I got a call from Kelly and Beyoncé…saying that they were constantly being harassed by two of the members in Jagged Edge. I couldn’t have that.” Knowles explained that he had to kick the Jagged Edge members off the bus, which created tension within Destiny’s Child. “I literally had to put the guys off the bus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,” he said. “That began all of this drama.”
According to Entertainment Tonight, the drama Knowles was referring to was the band’s fallout with OG Destiny’s Child members LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett, who sought out a different manager soon after without telling Knowles first. Knowles recalled having a conversation with executives at Sony Music to replace Roberson and Luckett, which is when Michelle Williams and Farrah Franklin joined the band.
Though he didn’t specify what happened to Beyoncé and Rowland on the tour bus, he confirmed that the harassment was sexual and that the Jagged Edge members wanted to “sleep” with his teenage daughter.”We won’t talk about that on camera,” he told VladTV.
Image: KMazur/WireImage.
In a recent interview with Elle, Beyoncé opened up about how she came to love her body. She explained that it wasn’t until she had kids that she became more comfortable with not caring about what others thought of her appearance.
“If someone told me 15 years ago that my body would go through so many changes and fluctuations, and that I would feel more womanly and secure with my curves, I would not have believed them,” she said. “But children and maturity have taught me to value myself beyond my physical appearance and really understand that I am more than enough no matter what stage I’m at in life.”
She continued, “Giving zero fucks is the most liberating place to be. Also knowing true beauty is something you cannot see. I wish more people focused on discovering the beauty within themselves rather than critiquing other folks’ grills.”