New York - Tina Knowles (71), the mother of Beyoncé (43) and Solange Knowles (38), revealed a shocking diagnosis on a television show on Tuesday: she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year.

The 71-year-old went public with her story on the breakfast television program"CBS Mornings".

During the coronavirus pandemic , she had missed a routine mammogram appointment and only made up for it last year. During the screening, doctors found two tumors in her left breast, one of which was non-cancerous, but the other was already stage 1 cancer.

She told presenter Gayle King (70): "I always tried to look after myself. I couldn't believe it."

In August last year, she underwent a lumpectomy to remove the cancerous tumor. She has been cancer-free ever since.

Knowles recalled the day she entered the operating theater: "I was nervous." Her friends and her daughters Beyoncé and Solange visited her in hospital and tried to cheer her up, the "Matriarch" author said.

She was back in the public eye in October. She was honored at the "Woman of the Year 2024" glamour event. As the grandmother of four explained, she wanted to accept the award in person and celebrate her new phase of life.

On the show, she said: "For most of my life, I just refused to be recognized. It was my way of saying, I deserve this."