In the feature, Knowles, who has a son from a previous marriage, says that she experienced a lot of life before most women her age and those experiences pushed her up the maturity meter.
“I was lucky with Julez,” she reflects. “I was completely lost when we moved to Idaho, out in the country, and I devoted everything to him.” The marriage didn’t last, though, and Knowles filed for divorce in 2006. “In a lot of ways, emotionally and mentally, I feel far older than 27,” she says. “Just going through a marriage and a divorce—which I essentially did by 21—will give you an insane amount of perspective on life.”
Now the Houston native, who’s lived in Los Angeles and then Brooklyn (to be near superstar sister Beyoncé), has pulled up her roots yet again and settled in New Orleans. From Lil Wayne’s hometown, Solo is running her Saint Records and doing her duties as a creative consultant at Puma with those crazy sneakers. She’s also happily in a long-term relationship with video director Alan Ferguson, the couple’s been together for four years. The only problem with all of this happiness is, how many songs can really be about sunshine, daiquiris and beignets?
“Luckily, I dated all of the losers ages ago. My love life has been stable for a while,” she says, adding wryly, “It’s a fucked-up thing—without conflict it’s a lot harder to write interesting songs.”
Fortunately for us Solo fans, she has grown into the fashionista who is incredibly fun to follow on Instagram and enjoy musically.
“I still stand behind the stuff I did early on, but I was on a record label and I didn’t have a lot of creative control,” she says. “Another side of that is just being young and having bad taste. There was plenty of that too.”
Image via My Damn Blog.
