Tina Knowles Shares Memories of Beyoncé’s Challenging Performance While Pregnant with Blue Ivy

Beyoncé and Tina Knowles in May 2011.
Credit:

Ethan Miller/Getty

NEED TO KNOW

• Tina Knowles discusses one of Beyoncé’s “hardest” performances.
• She shared a clip of ITV’s 2011 A Night with Beyoncé special, filmed during the early months of her pregnancy with daughter Blue Ivy Carter.
• “In between songs, she would run back and throw up and come out and do the next song,” said Tina.

As reported by Tina Knowles, performing was a significant challenge for Beyoncé during the early months of her pregnancy with daughter Blue Ivy Carter.

Tina, whose daughter has won 35 Grammys, shared a throwback clip from ITV’s 2011 A Night with Beyoncé special on Instagram on January 6. In her post, she revealed that Beyoncé experienced extreme nausea while two months pregnant.

“This just came across my feed! It took me down memory lane,” Tina, 72, wrote in her caption. “This is one of the hardest shows we’ve ever done. Beyoncé was about two months pregnant with Blue and as nauseated as she could be.”

Tina elaborated, “In between songs, she would run back and throw up and come out and do the next song. This is when I knew without a doubt how strong and resilient of a performer she was… we couldn’t tell anyone about the pregnancy.”

At the time, only Tina, along with stylists Ty Hunter and Tim White, were aware of Beyoncé’s pregnancy.

“As sick as she was, she got through the show and killed her performances,” Tina continued. “All the band and crew knew was she [was] sick.”

Beyoncé in August 2011.

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty

ITV’s A Night with Beyoncé aired in the U.K. on December 4, 2011, although the performance was likely filmed months earlier. Beyoncé announced her pregnancy during the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards in August.

Blue Ivy was born to Beyoncé and Jay-Z on January 7, 2012. The young star, who has performed alongside her mother on the Renaissance World Tour and Cowboy Carter Tour, is now 14 years old.

In November, Tina revealed how Blue Ivy and Beyoncé assisted her in recording vocals for an Ulta commercial promoting the Cécred hair care line.

“Fun Fact! My sweet daughter @beyonce took me into her studio and produced my vocals on ‘Five Golden Things’ because I actually had a sinus infection when I shot my part of the commercial,” Tina wrote.

“So she and Blue produced the harmonies to make me sound a little better,” she continued. “Thank you Jesus!!! Because my Blue (my manager) said, ‘Grandma, you are going to be a meme!'”

Tina humorously added, “Y’all would’ve talked a bunch of stuff about me if I would’ve sounded bad.”