Often times, we like to mystify celebrities. It’s often not hard to. They’re one of the few thousand that found some way to make it big in the entertainment industry and be seen by hundreds and millions of people. The success that these men and women have to their collective names is attractive. They’ve found a way to hone and monopolize their talents, making millions simply by doing what they love. And, often times, these celebrities are pleasing to the eye. A perfect example of a celebrity that is the literal embodiment of all of these qualities is Beyonce.

Beyonce is often treated like a God, literally. Remember back a few years ago there was a church formed to worship Beyonce? Nevertheless, some of the fandom that Beyonce commands is akin to idol worship. The “Beehive” often sees the brighter sides of her and overlook things that aren’t as glowing. In the action of putting Beyonce on a pedestal, many have forgotten that she’s human. She loves and she laughs but also she cries and she hurts. No amount of money has made her less human. No amount of success has made her life impervious to pain and drama.

Just last year, Beyonce dropped an acclaimed surprise visual album titled Lemonade. The album was centered around relationships, most specifically rebounding from infidelity. Many believed that she was writing this album as a means to vent about Jay-Z cheating on her. Some were skeptics while many fans of Beyonce were content with finding the person Beyonce labled “Becky with the good hair”. At the time, it was all just rumors. Who knew if Beyonce was just being creative or indirectly talking about her life? Well, now we have confirmation from Jay-Z that he indeed cheated on Beyonce.

Jay-Z raps on several songs on his newly released album 4:44 about his infidelity. First, the first song on the album “Fuck Jay Z”

“You egged Solange on knowin’ all along / All you had to say, you was wrong / You almost went Eric Benét / Let the baddest girl in the world get away”

Then, the title track “4:44”,

“I apologize, often womanize / Took for my child to be born to see through a woman’s eyes.”

“I still mourn this death, I apologize for all the stillborns / ‘Cause I wasn’t present, your body wouldn’t accept it.”

‘You did what with who?’ / What good is a ménage à trois when you have a soulmate? / ‘You risked that for Blue?'”

Lastly, he confirms that “Becky” is a real person in “Family Feud”.

“Yeah, I’ll f— up a good thing if you let me / Let me alone, Becky / A man that don’t take care of his family can’t be rich / I’ll watch ‘Godfather,’ I missed that whole shit.”

Firstly, it’s amazing that Jay-Z is so much vulnerable as an artist to put his issues out on the forefront on this album. I also see that it’s amazing that he and Beyonce were able to work things out despite the cheating, miscarriages and paparazzi/gossip blogs trying their best to put tension on their marriage for hits on their website. This alone is admirable and shows how strong black love can be. However, people aren’t looking at that component of Jay-Z’s confessions. Nah, they choose to be vain and sit in disbelief at the fact that “Beyonce was cheated on”.

Maybe folks didn’t notice before Lemonade and 4:44 dropped but Beyonce & Jay-Z are real people that live slightly different lives than we do. Their celebrity doesn’t mean that marital dysfunctions won’t happen. Also, this happening to Beyonce doesn’t mean in any way that this is going to be the narrative of women everywhere. Women already are using this as another excuse to why they can’t find a good black man, “If Beyonce got cheated on, what hope is there for me?” Yes, some of these comments are in just but others are dead serious. Some people live vicariously through these celebrities in relationships. They get so emerged in what’s going on with them they forget to watch and tend to their own affairs.

Everyone calm down! Beyonce being cheated on isn’t the end of the world and, obviously, it wasn’t the end of her marriage. They were both mutually able to work through their differences and rebound for the sake of their family. Maybe we all could learn something from that.

Lyric Breakdown was Courtesy of “Business Insider”, from their article:

Jay-Z apologizes to Beyonce on new album “4:44”: LYRICS BREAKDOWN