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Beyonce's age subjected to scrutiny after father Matthew Knowles fuels conspiracy theories in new interview

And there are a surprising amount of questions about her 'real age'

Chris Mandle
Tuesday 20 October 2015 11:29 BST
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(Matthew Knowles)

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Beyonce’s age has been called into question after her father, Matthew Knowles, implied she was in her forties during a radio interview.

The singer is listed as being born in 1981, which would make her 34 years old, but speaking to The Breakfast Club, Knowles suggested his daughter was the same age as P!nk, who is 36 years old.

“[Destiny’s Child] had a competitiveness, L.A Reid had a rival girl group at the time, and i’ll bet you don’t know who the lead singer was,” he said. “It was P!nk! And she was the exact same age as Beyonce.”

“[Then] you had Usher, who was the same age, they were all 14 or 15 years old, living in Atlanta.”

Despite Knowles implying his daughter is only a few years older, and despite being one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, selling millions of albums and having an incredible set of pipes on her, Beyonce’s age has become the subject of numerous conspiracy theories.

TMZ ran a story in 2006 claiming she was seven years older than she claimed - citing a document from the Texas Department of Health.

Beyoncé-inspired skyscraper

There was also confusion when actress Gabrielle Union, who worked with Beyonce on the 2008 film Cadillac Records, claimed the two had been friends when they were “teenagers” even though she was born nine years before Beyonce.

This would make Beyonce just ten years old when Union was nineteen.

The more bizarre corners of the internet even support a theory that Beyonce’s sister, Solange, is actually her daughter, which was covered up by Matthew and Tina Knowles.

Knowles’ comments were nestled among a 36-minute interview about launching Destiny’s Child. It’s entirely possible he just got his ages mixed up - his difficult relationship with Beyonce is well-documented after she fired him as her manager - or it could be intentionally stirring something.

He insisted that he was still “very close” to both his daughters, despite routinely being left out of photos with the family.

“My role is to be a manager, to be behind, not in front,” he said. “Now I do it more, now I’m promoting a book.”

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