Mathew Knowles is a survivor of breast cancer.
Beyoncé and Solange's father, who managed Destiny's Child and Queen Bey until 2011, shared his diagnosis with Good Morning America's Michael Strahan in an interview that aired on Wednesday (October 2).
The sit-down showed a strong and resilient Mathew, detailing his battle with the disease, which is incredibly rare in men — it affects about 2,000 men each year — but is most common among those who are 60 to 70 years old, per the Cancer Treatment Centers of America.
The music exec first shared how he knew something was wrong when he noticed a reoccurring bloodstain on his shirts. "I told my wife [Gena Charmaine Avery] and she said, 'You know I saw a dot of blood on the sheets,' so I immediately went to my doctor," he explained. "I got a mammogram and then it was very clear that I had breast cancer."
"Of all the things I could get, why would I get this?" he recalled thinking. "From a man's perspective, I'm thinking, 'Why me?'"
Mathew also said he chose to get genetic testing, which showed he has the mutated BRAC2 gene, which also puts him at a higher risk for prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and melanoma. "The rest of my life I have to be very much aware and conscious and do all of the early detection," he shared. "Constant mammograms, constant prostate exams, constant MRIs for the rest of my life."
The proud father, who has four children — Beyonce, Solange, Koi, and Nixon — went on to explain how his family has been his greatest support system since he received his diagnosis and he's made sure to keep them in the loop about everything because "it's genetics."
"[That] means that my kids have a higher chance, a higher risk. Even my grandkids have a higher risk. And they handled it like they should. They went and got the test," Mathew shared.
When it comes to Mathew's fight against breast cancer he said he had surgery in July and now he's "doing all the steps for recovery." He added, "I stopped drinking. I wanted to just have a clean bill of health and do things, exercise, meditate [...] I just look at the world differently." And now, he said he hopes to encourage other men, especially black men who are at more risk for breast cancer, to go and get tested. "I learned again that the numbers that we have for men on breast cancer are not adequate because we don't have enough men that come forward, that take the exam," he told Michael. "I'm hoping by me coming here today, speaking out, letting folks know that you can survive this, but it has to be early detection. And I can't overemphasize the word early."
Mathew's breast cancer announcement comes just at the start of Breast Cancer Awareness month. The annual international health campaign, which is organized by breast cancer charities every October, is meant to increase awareness about the disease, raise funds for breast cancer research, and provide information and support to those affected by breast cancer.
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