Beyonce’s father Mathew Knowles has revealed he underwent surgery after being diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.
The talent manager, 67, said that members of his family – which also includes daughter Solange Knowles – have been tested for the disease following his diagnosis.
Knowles told US TV show Good Morning America that he is a “survivor of breast cancer”, and that he is “doing really good” following surgery at the end of July.
.@GMA EXCLUSIVE: @MathewKnowles, the father of @Beyonce and @solangeknowles, sits down one-on-one with @michaelstrahan as he reveals his breast cancer diagnosis. https://t.co/zMRJ4O03lS pic.twitter.com/eaQz5yqHIv
— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 2, 2019
He said that he noticed a small spot of blood occurring on his shirt and also on his bed sheets, which prompted him to go for a mammogram.
“Of all the things I could get, why would I get this?” he said.
“From a man’s perspective I’m thinking, why me?”
Knowles, who is best known for managing the R&B group Destiny’s Child starring Beyonce, said that he has the BRCA2 gene, which means he has “four things to be concerned about: prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, melanoma and breast cancer”.
“The rest of my life I have to be very much aware and conscious and do all of the early detection, constant mammograms, constant prostate exams, constant MRI scans, for the rest of my life.”
He added: “The first call was to my family. Because this is genetic, it also means that my kids have a higher chance, a higher risk. Even my grandkids have a higher risk.
.@MathewKnowles on his breast cancer diagnosis: “The rest of my life I have to be very much aware and conscious and do all of the early detection.” https://t.co/zMRJ4O03lS pic.twitter.com/inNNaKGLmd
— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 2, 2019
“And they handled it like they should. They went and got the test.”
Knowles said he wanted to speak out about his breast cancer diagnosis at the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month to encourage more men to get tested for the disease.
He said that he wants to show men that “you can survive this, but it has to be early detection”.
Knowles said that he has learned that “only 1%” of people in the US who get breast cancer are men, and that it is more common in black men than white men”.
According to the charity Breast Cancer UK, a British man’s risk of developing breast cancer is one in 870.
Knowles divorced wife Tina Knowles, Beyonce and Solange’s mother, in 2011, and he married second wife Gena Avery in 2013.