Tina Knowles has slammed reports that Beyoncé was paid millions to speak at Vice President Kamala Harris’s Houston rally.
Last month, the Houston native, 43, was joined by her Destiny Child bandmate Kelly Roland at Harris’s campaign event to endorse the Democratic nominee in an emotional speech.
Rumors spread online that the record-breaking Grammy winner was paid $10m for her appearance, with prominent right-wing commentator Candace Owens furthering the narrative on a recent episode of her eponymously titled podcast.
“Beyoncé allegedly got paid $10m for that pathetic little endorsement of Kamala Harris. What was it, three minutes? $10m for three minutes of her life?” Owens, who previously endorsed Donald Trump, said.
While Owens acknowledged that the claims hadn’t been confirmed, she went on to argue that there has to be “some truth to these reports” as the Harris campaign has “gone completely mum and refused to answer” questions regarding the rumors.
Instagram has since blurred the post and added a note informing users that the clip includes “false information” before users can proceed to view it.
“So this has been flagged on Instagram as fake news and taken down. It’s called False Information,” Beyoncé’s mother wrote on Instagram alongside a screenshot of the blurred post. “Sadly other platforms with a lack of integrity still have it up.
“The lie is that Beyonce was paid 10 million dollars to speak at a rally in Houston for Vice President Kamala Harris. When In Fact: Beyonce did not receive a penny for speaking at a Presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harrris’s Rally in Houston,” she continued, revealing that the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer “actually paid for her own flights for her and her team, and total Glam.”
“They are not only lying and disrespecting Beyonce’s name but they are trying to further discredit the power of our vice president! When does the lies and rumors stop? Of course you won’t see this in the news !!!!!” Knowles added.
Knowles’s message comes shortly after Oprah Winfrey shut down rumors that she, too, had been paid $1m by the Harris campaign for a sit-down livestreamed interview with the candidate.
“Not true – I was paid nothing, ever,” the TV star told a TMZ reporter last week. Though Winfrey herself wasn’t paid for the appearance, her media company, Harpo Productions, was paid for the costs of the town hall.
“I was not paid a dime,” Winfrey later commented underneath an Instagram post by The Shade Room. “For the live streaming event in September, my production company, Harpo, was asked to bring in set design, lights, cameras, crew, producers and every other item necessary (including the benches and the chairs we sat on) to put on a live production. I did not take any personal fee. However, the people who worked on that production needed to be paid. And were. End of story.”
