Fantastic Voyage Generic Graphics Updated Nov 2023
Black America Web Featured Video
CLOSE

Beyoncé may currently enjoy a happy life as a certified superstar, but according to Radar Online, the road to getting there was filled with sex, drugs and parental drama.

Chatting with the site, Beyoncé’s former “babysitter” — and convicted drug dealer — Belfrey Brown detailed to the world how things were for the singer before she hit it big. At the time, Bey was a member of Girl’s Tyme, a group mentored by manager Andretta Tillman.

Helping to raise the singer was Tillman’s nephew, Brown, who had a hand in mentoring Beyoncé in between his illegal activities. According to Brown, “I was around [Beyoncé] a lot” from 1980 onward.

“Andretta Tillman’s my aunt. She was the original manager for Destiny’s Child and Beyoncé,” he told Radar. “I did spend a lot of time around them in the early years. I guess you could say I was Beyoncé’s babysitter!”

“At the time, I was selling drugs,” he added. “I did get caught up in a federal indictment and I had to leave them all behind to go to prison near Dallas. I was there for 12 years.”

As if all that weren’t enough. The young Beyoncé caught a lot of drama at home as Knowles family friend Brian Moore claimed in his memoir, “The Making of a Child of Destiny,” that the entertainer’s father, Mathew Knowles, was a cocaine-snorting serial cheater in the early years of her career.

According to Moore, Mathew was known to go in Tillman’s “garage to do cocaine or other drugs” during rehearsals for Girl’s Tyme and “would come back ranting and raving … yelling and carrying on.” In addition, Moore went on to claim that Matthew would attend important meetings about Beyoncé’s future career “high as a kite.”

In addition to drugs, Moore’s book paints Beyoncé’s daddy as an admitted sex addict who often cheated on his wife Tina. Author J. Randy Taraborrelli’s Beyoncé biography, “Becoming Beyoncé,” goes deeper into the situation as it revealed that Tina was so desperate for help that she once turned to the drug dealing Brown for help.

Moore’s book goes on to acknowledge how Tillman confronted Brown about Knowles’ drug situation and asked him if he was supplying him with drugs. Brown denied the claim.

Knowles’ drug use was so bad, according to Moore, that even when those around him started noticing his frequent drug-induced rages, he only “increased … his drug use.”

“It was getting out of control,” wrote Moore. “He started lying even more to Tina and giving her the impression that there were meetings going on … Mathew used them as a cover for extramarital affairs with different women.”

Sound familiar, like a certain hit TV show?

To hear Brown tell it, Tina was not a happy camper over what Matthew was doing. So much so that the pair would engage in explosive fights.

“Have you seen the show ‘Empire’?” Brown joked. “That whole thing between them was like ‘Empire’ before the TV show!”

Radar notes that Matthew eventually checked into rehab for sex addiction. In 2011, the Knowles’ divorce was finalized. With all this, you have to wonder what ultimately drove Beyoncé to be as driven for success and as she is.

According to Moore, the answer comes from another dark place, with Moore alleging that Beyoncé’s best friend and Girl’s Tyme group mate, LaTavia Roberson, was repeatedly molested by a Houston cop.

Roberson confirmed the abuse, Radar reports, adding that Moore stated that it was Robertson’s ordeal coupled with witnessing Matthew’s rages that ultimately transformed Beyoncé into the music icon she is today.

“After this Beyoncé started to get thick skin,” Moore wrote. “She was more edgy and protective. You could see Beyoncé sort of grow up.”

Like BlackAmericaWeb.com on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

(Photo Source: AP)