When it was clear Beyoncé would be a star, Tina Knowles went out of her way to make sure that Solange didn’t feel left out.
In an interview with Maria Shriver, Knowles revealed that with Beyoncé attaining local fame at such an early age, she knew, from her own experience, that she had to make sure Solange got enough attention.
“I was very sensitive to that because I grew up where I felt like my mom liked my brother more. And she loved him more. So I was really sensitive to it. So I had days I devoted to – on Wednesday I took off work and that was Solange’s day. She was a lot younger than Beyoncé,” she told Shriver. “It was tough because Beyoncé was this little superstar in our city.”
But Knowles knew that wasn’t enough – she also took her two daughters to counseling to help them get along with one another.
“I took them to counseling,” she said. “Very early. So that the counselor could help Beyoncé be more sensitive to Solange because she couldn’t stand her for a minute. You know, when they were little, when she was 5, she was all in her stuff, she was trying to hang around her and her friends. Beyoncé was really irritated. But it made her more sensitive to who her sister was and what she had to deal with because of her.”
Not everyone saw things Knowles’ way but she knew it would help her daughters and she feels their strong relationship is proof that it did.
“My family was like, ’You’re going to make them crazy because they’re too young for you to take them.’ But I wanted Beyoncé to be sensitive to the fact that Solange had to deal with being a little bit in her shadow. And it made her way more sensitive and protective,” she said. “And they’re still fiercely protective of each other.”
Hard to argue with that.