When Jay Z Confessed to Cheating On His Wife Beyoncé and Blamed it on His Childhood Problems

The ultimate power couple in the music industry, rapper Jay Z and singer Beyoncé, have always made iconic public appearances on the red carpets, but still, they have also had their fair share of trouble in their matrimony.  As it so turned out, the rapper cheated on his wife and then blamed it on his childhood problems, reported The New York Times Style Magazine. Back in 2017, while everything seemed picture-perfect, the couple turned heads after rumors of her husband having an affair broke out.  

After remaining silent for a long time, the rapper came forward in complete honesty and truth while admitting to cheating on his beloved wife. In an exclusive interview with Dean Baquet, the rapper had an intense 35-minute conversation about his marriage and other topics.

As the intricately designed interview progressed, Jay Z admitted that he indeed battled infidelity even though he was in a loving and committed relationship with the Halo singer. "You have to survive. So you go into survival mode, and when you go into survival mode what happen[s]? You shut down all emotions. So even with women, you gonna shut down emotionally, so you can't connect," Jay Z said when asked about how therapy led him to reassess his emotions. 

The interviewer clarified, "You can't connect because of the way you feel about yourself, you mean?" To this, Jay Z responded, "Yes. In my case, like it's, it's deep. And then all the things happen from there: infidelity...," hinting that his reasons were primarily related to a traumatic childhood. In a heartbreaking and regretful tone, he said, "The hardest thing is seeing pain on someone's face that you have caused and then have to deal with yourself." 

Baquet then asked Jay Z how music and their respective 'very confessional, open albums' helped both the rapper and his wife heal from all the hurt: "Was it difficult to say: "I'm gonna talk about the problems in our marriage. I'm gonna talk about how we almost lost things." And for her to say: "I'm gonna talk about my pain and anger at you." What were those conversations like?" Jay Z clarified, "Again, it didn't — it didn't happen in that way. It happened — 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... I was right there the entire time."

The iconic rapper also confessed that working on these albums was incredibly painful for the duo but added that the 'best place in the, you know, hurricane is like in the middle of it.' He added that both of them were proud of each other's work and music and had genuine admiration for the same.

As for why the pair did not separate, Jay Z said, "You know, most people walk away, and like divorce rate is like 50 percent or something ’cause most people can’t see themselves. The hardest thing is seeing pain on someone’s face that you caused, and then have to deal with yourself... So, you know, most people don't want to do that. You don't want to look inside yourself... And so you walk away."

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on June 5, 2023. It has since been updated.