From “Crazy in Love” to Everything Is Love, and everything in between.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z stand as the epitome of a power couple, unrivaled, mysterious, and unstoppable. Their synergy is palpable, evident in their collaborative album “Everything Is Love,” yet individually, they shine just as brightly. Beyoncé revolutionized the music industry with visual albums like “Lemonade,” while Jay-Z immortalized New York City with the modern anthem “Empire State of Mind,” featuring Alicia Keys.
Their influence extends far beyond music. Jay-Z’s entertainment agency, Roc Nation, thrives, and he played a pivotal role in bringing the Nets to Brooklyn. These ventures, coupled with his astute investments, propelled him to become the first hip-hop artist to join the billionaires’ club. As he confidently declares in “Family Feud” from “4:44,” “Ain’t no such thing as an ugly billionaire, I’m cute.” Meanwhile, Beyoncé mentors emerging talents like Chloe x Halle, spearheads the Ivy Park fashion line, and boasts a record-breaking 32 Grammy Awards. Yes, 32! It’s no wonder the Beyhive remains unwaveringly devoted.
Yet, amidst their illustrious careers, their greatest source of pride undoubtedly lies in their three children: Rumi, Sir, and Blue Ivy Carter. These youngsters are poised to become icons in their own right. Combined with their enduring two-decade-long relationship, the Carters embody family goals.
True fans are aware of the couple’s trials and triumphs, but if there’s anyone capable of sustaining a marriage amidst the glare of the spotlight, it’s Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Here’s a glimpse into how they found—and crucially, maintained—their bond:
We don’t know the exact date when Beyoncé and Jay-Z first met, but she did give us an idea when talking to Seventeen in 2008. “I was 18 when we first met, 19 when we first started dating,” she revealed. “There was no rush—no one expected me to run off and get married.”
2001
The biggest thing to happen this year is their appearance in Vanity Fair’s music issue right when they started dating. “We were just beginning to try to date each other,” rapper Jay-Z said years later. Beyoncé told Oprah Winfrey that they had a friendship as their foundation. “We were friends first for a year and a half before we went on any dates,” she said.
2002
A year later they must have realized that their star power was that much more impactful when they performed together. Their first musical collaboration is when Beyoncé appears on Jay’s “03 Bonnie and Clyde.”
2003
Next they drop “Crazy in Love,” which is possibly one of the most fun songs to dance to with your friends. It even earns them a Grammy for best R&B song. The lyrics aren’t shy about the fact that they’re a couple: “I’ve been playing myself, baby, I don’t care. ’Cause your love’s got the best of me,” she sings.
2004
Nonfamous couples usually make their big debut on Instagram or by changing their relationship status on Facebook. When you’re a superstar, the big debut usually happens on a red carpet. Bey and Jay are no different when they step on the carpet together for the 2004 VMAs.
2006
After years together Beyoncé starts getting a bit of wedding fever. She tells Cosmopolitan, “I don’t know when I’ll want to get married. I never pictured myself as a bride, but after my sister’s wedding, I did start thinking about what kind of wedding I’d want. I don’t think I want a big one.” She even says that her fellow Destiny’s Child members, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams, will be her bridesmaids.
April 2008
It’s evident that Beyoncé’s 2006 interview was foreshadowing her eventual secret wedding on April 4, 2008. The wedding date is also significant (4/4) because of the couple’s love and frequent use of the number. The wedding is “very emotional,” according to a People source.
August 2008
Their secret wedding was not so secret anymore. During an interview with Vibe, Jay-Z explains why he and his wife want to keep the personal details of their relationship out of the public eye. “You’ll go insane in this type of business,” he says. “You have to have something that’s sacred to you and the people around you.” He’s not wrong.
2011
After much speculation, Beyoncé finally admits that she’s pregnant. While performing “Love on Top” at the VMAs, she tells the crowd, “I want you to stand up on your feet. I want you to feel the love that’s growing inside me.”
Sadly, a couple of years later, she reveals that it wasn’t her first pregnancy. In her documentary Life Is but a Dream, she discusses her miscarriage. “I heard the heartbeat, which was the most beautiful music I ever heard in my life… being pregnant was very much like falling in love,” she says. “[Early into the pregnancy] I flew back to New York to get my checkup—and no heartbeat. Literally the week before I went to the doctor, everything was fine, but there was no heartbeat.”
January 2012
The Knowles-Carter dynasty grows when Bey and Jay welcome their first child, daughter Blue Ivy Carter, in New York City on January 7, 2012.
February 2012
The world gets to meet Blue! Like the icon she is, Beyoncé shares the first photos of her daughter in a unique way. She posts them on Tumblr, writing, “We welcome you to share in our joy.”
January 2013
Bey reminds the world of her talent and her influence by performing a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
February 2013
The world gets another peek into Bey and Jay’s life in the Life Is But a Dream documentary on HBO, directed by Beyoncé and featuring lots of raw home footage. Still, they keep their distance, and the singers are only rarely unguarded.
July 2013
Later in the year they begin to focus on music and release a couple albums. Jay’s Magna Carter Holy Grail includes a collab with his wife on “Part II (On the Run).”
December 2013
Then Bey shocks the world by dropping her surprise visual self-titled album. On it, she and the rapper sing together on “Drunk in Love.” Where once they were crazy in love, now they’re drunk in love, and he’s eating her breasteses for his breakfast.
May 2014
Now, here’s where the plot thickens. (Admit it, you were waiting for the drama.) Following the Met Gala on May 7, footage emerges of Beyoncé’s sister, Solange Knowles, appearing to confront Jay-Z in an elevator at an after-party. Speculation swirls that the altercation stemmed from rumors of infidelity.
Later, a statement is released: “There has been much speculation about the unfortunate incident. However, our family has worked through it. Jay and Solange both accept their share of responsibility for what transpired. They acknowledge their roles in this private matter that unfolded in public. Both have apologized to each other, and we have moved forward as a united family. Claims of Solange being intoxicated or behaving erratically that evening are unfounded. Ultimately, families face challenges, and we are no exception. We love each other, and above all, we are family. We’ve put this incident behind us and hope others will do the same.”
In a subtle nod to the incident, Beyoncé seemingly references it later in the “Flawless (Remix).” She croons, “Of course, sometimes things go awry when there’s a billion dollars in an elevator.”
June 2014
Things appear to be much better between Beyoncé and Jay-Z as they hit the road for their joint On the Run Tour.
July 2014
Rumors begin to swirl that Bey and Jay were on the brink of divorce. “They are trying to figure out a way to split without divorcing,” a source tells Page Six. “This is a huge concert tour, and they’ve already gotten most of the money from the promoters up front.”
The insider adds, “Jay was outdoing Jay, and Bey was outdoing Bey. They made the classic mistake of thinking a child would change everything and help to rekindle the initial fire, and it didn’t.”
August 2014
Solange discusses the elevator incident in Lucky, saying, “What’s important is that my family and I are all good. What we had to say collectively was in the statement that we put out, and we all feel at peace with that.” Hmmmm.
2015
Bey and Jay’s relationship seems to be better by spring. He shares a video of the two of them exchanging vows at their wedding. Later in May they attend the Met Gala sans elevator attacks.
February 2016
This is when the reign of Queen Bey reaches new heights. Her performance at the Super Bowl halftime show is more important than the game itself (if you ask us).
April 2016
What did we do to deserve the love our queen bestowed upon us in 2016? Just two months after her breathtaking performance, she unveils her visual album Lemonade on HBO. But here’s the twist—it’s essentially a breakup album? Entire songs delve into themes of infidelity, not to mention that iconic “Hold Up” music video where she goes full-on car-smashing mode with a baseball bat.
Tracks like “Formation” and “Sorry” don’t exactly paint a picture of domestic bliss. Fans dive deep into the lyrics, trying to decipher who exactly “Becky with the good hair” is and what transpired. Suffice it to say, it’s not a great time to go by the name Becky.
October 2016
Beyoncé seems to silence possible divorce rumors when she gives a shout-out to Jay-Z during her final performance on the Formation World Tour.
February 2017
Everything is good in the world again when Beyoncé announces that she’s pregnant (with twins!) in a beautiful photo.
The caption reads, “We would like to share our love and happiness. We have been blessed two times over. We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes. – The Carters.”
June 2017
The Knowles-Carter dynasty grows by two when Rumi and Sir Carter enter the world. Later that month, Jay drops his album 4:44, which seems to confirm his infidelity.
“I apologize, our love was one for the ages and I contained us,” he raps. “And if my children knew, I don’t even know what I would do / If they ain’t look at me the same / I would prolly die with all the shame.” Sigh.
November 2017
Jay-Z talks more about the difficulties in his marriage in an interview with T: The New York Times Style Magazine. “So even with women, you gonna shut down emotionally, so you can’t connect…. In my case, like, it’s deep. And then all the things happen from there: infidelity,” he admits. “We were using our art almost like a therapy session. And we started making music together. And then the music she was making at that time was further along. So her album came out as opposed to the joint album that we were working on. Um, we still have a lot of that music. And this is what it became. There was never a point where it was like, ‘I’m making this album.’ I was right there the entire time.”
March 2018
They announce their joint tour, On the Run II, but there’s still no mention of the joint album Jay mentioned in his Times interview. Beyoncé shuts it down a month later at Coachella.
June 2018
Beyoncé and Jay-Z finally unveil their long-awaited joint album, Everything Is Love, during their OTR II Tour.
The exciting announcement came during a London concert amid their tour. Beyoncé expressed gratitude to the crowd, saying, “You’ve all given so much love every time we come here—thank you. Because we love you all so much, we have something special for y’all. We want you guys to be the first to experience this new project.”
2019
Beyoncé voices Nala in the Lion King live-action film. She and Jay-Z attend the premiere, where they meet British royalty, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. They had previously used a picture of Megan in a video for their song “Apesh*t.” And for a moment, all is well with the world.
Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (3rd L) and Britain’s Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (2nd L) meet cast and crew, including US singer-songwriter Beyoncé (C) and her husband, US rapper Jay-Z (R) as they attend the European premiere of the film The Lion King in London on July 14, 2019.
2020
She then releases an album, The Lion King: The Gift, curated for the movie. She also creates a visual album inspired by music from The Lion King. Black Is King is dedicated to her son, Sir, and is available to stream on Disney+.
2021
The pair stir up a bit of controversy when they pose for a Tiffany Jeweler’s ad featuring a painting by the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiát. The painting in question was privately owned by Tiffany & Co., but friends of the artist and others in the art world felt that its use in advertising was inappropriate, and that the painter would have wanted his work to be publicly accessible, like in a museum.2022
In Beyoncé’s Renaissance album, released on July 29, she appears to allude to the rumors surrounding Jay-Z’s infidelity. In the track “Plastic on the Sofa,” she sings, “I know nobody’s perfect so I’ll let you be, I’ll let you be. It’s the way that you wear your emotions on both of your sleeves, ’til the face you make when I tell you that I had to leave.” The lyrics convey a sense of acceptance despite imperfections and the challenges faced in their relationship: “We don’t need the world’s acceptance. They’re too hard on me, they’re too hard on you, boy.”
Moreover, some fans interpret another track, “Cozy,” as referencing the infamous elevator incident involving Solange. In this song, Beyoncé sings, “She’s a god, she’s a hero, she survived, all she been through, confident and she lethal. Might I suggest you don’t mess with my sis, because she comfortable.”
In a heartfelt letter on her website, Beyoncé dedicates a portion of the album to her husband and children. She expresses gratitude to Rumi, Sir, and Blue for their support and inspiration: “I want to give a special thanks to Rumi, Sir, and Blue for allowing me the space, creativity, and inspiration.” Beyoncé also extends appreciation to her husband, acknowledging his unwavering support during the creative process: “And a special thanks to my beautiful husband and muse, who held me down during those late nights in the studio.”
2023
On June 20, amid Bey’s Renaissance World Tour, the pair attend the Louis Vuitton menswear show in Paris, held on the city’s oldest bridge. They’re there to support friend Pharrell, who has become creative director for the brand. They’re there to support friend Pharrell Williams, who is showing for the first time since becoming creative director for the brand.
ARIS, FRANCE РJUNE 20: Jay Z and Beyonc̩ attend the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring/Summer 2024 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 20, 2023 in Paris, France.
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