Beyonce reveals she nearly died giving birth to twins and that she has been to ‘hell and back’ with hubby Jay Z in Vogue cover shoot
GIVING birth to her twins nearly proved to be Beyonce’s swansong.
Yesterday, the singing superstar revealed she almost died giving birth to daughter Rumi and son Sir, 13 months ago.
The 36-year-old has always been fiercely protective of her private life, but in a remarkably candid major interview — her first for four years — she opens up about the medical emergency.
She tells how she suffered pregnancy-induced hypertension which saw her body swell to 15st 5lb, and talks about the last-minute Caesarean section which possibly saved her life and her babies.
She also alludes to overcoming her spat with rapper husband Jay Z, 48, which prompted rumours he had been unfaithful, and says she has emerged feeling “sexier”, “more beautiful” and “more powerful” than ever.
In September’s issue of Vogue, Beyonce reveals: “I was 218lb the day I gave birth to Rumi and Sir.
“I was swollen from toxemia and had been on bed rest for over a month. My health and my babies’ health were in danger, so I had an emergency C-section.
“We spent many weeks in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).
“My husband was a soldier and such a strong support system for me.
“I am proud to have been a witness to his strength and evolution as a man, a best friend, and a father. I was in survival mode and did not grasp it all until months later.
“After the C-section, my core felt different. It had been major surgery.
“Some of your organs are shifted temporarily, and in rare cases, removed temporarily during delivery.
“I am not sure everyone understands that. I needed time to heal, to recover.”
Just over a year on, the American superstar, who also has a six-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy, with Jay, is still embracing the way pregnancy has changed her body.
Despite recent false rumours that she was expecting again, Beyonce insists she is not worried about shedding her remaining baby weight.
She says: “After the birth of my first child, I believed in the things society said about how my body should look. I put pressure on myself to lose all the baby weight in three months, and scheduled a small tour to assure I would do it. Looking back, that was crazy.”
Now she is happy to accept her curves and imperfections — even what she calls her mommy pouch.
She says: “During my recovery, I gave myself self-love and self-care, and I embraced being curvier. I accepted what my body wanted to be.
“After six months I started preparing for Coachella. I became vegan temporarily, gave up coffee, alcohol and fruit drinks. But I was patient with myself and enjoyed my fuller curves. My kids and husband did too.
“To this day my arms, shoulders, breasts and thighs are fuller. I have a little mommy pouch, and I’m in no rush to get rid of it. I think it’s real.
“Whenever I’m ready to get a six-pack, I will go into beast zone and work my ass off until I have it.”
The twins’ traumatic birth was in June 2017. Ten months later Beyonce was back on stage performing two concerts at the annual Coachella Music Festival in California.
She is currently on the North American leg of her On The Run II tour with Jay Z, having just released their joint album, Everything Is Love.
They got together when she featured on Jay’s 2002 single ’03 Bonnie & Clyde, and married in April 2008.
Mostly they have lived their life behind closed doors, but there have been a few very public dramas.
In 2014 her younger sister Solange, 32, was filmed physically attacking Jay in a lift at the Met Gala in New York while Beyonce looked on.
Two years later, Beyonce released her album Lemonade, about surviving the transgressions of a cheating hubby. It was widely believed to reflect her actual marriage and there was much speculation about the identity of the other woman —– “Becky with the good hair” in Sorry.
Without referencing her marriage directly, she says that “betrayals and heartbreaks” are now behind her.
She says: “There are many shades on every journey. Nothing is black or white. I’ve been through hell and back and I’m grateful for every scar.
“I have experienced betrayals and heartbreaks in many forms. I have had disappointments in business partnerships as well as personal ones, and they all left me feeling neglected, lost, and vulnerable.
“Through it all I have learned to laugh and cry and grow. I look at the woman I was in my twenties and I see a young lady growing into confidence but intent on pleasing everyone around her.
“I now feel so much more beautiful, so much sexier, so much more interesting. And so much more powerful.”
She adds: “I come from a lineage of broken male-female relationships, abuse of power and mistrust.
“Only when I saw that clearly was I able to resolve those conflicts in my own relationship.
“Connecting to the past and knowing our history makes us both bruised and beautiful.
“I pray that I am able to break the generational curses in my family and that my children will have less complicated lives.”
The former Destiny’s Child singer chose photographer Tyler Mitchell to take her picture for Vogue, making it the first cover of the fashion magazine to have been shot by an African American photographer.
Talking about the legacy she hopes to leave for her children, Beyonce says: “My mother taught me the importance not just of being seen but of seeing myself.
“As the mother of two girls, it’s important to me that they see themselves too — in books, films, and on runways. It’s important to me that they see themselves as CEOs, as bosses, and that they know they can write the script for their own lives — that they can speak their minds and they have no ceiling.
“They don’t have to be a certain type or fit into a specific category. They don’t have to be politically correct, as long as they’re authentic, respectful, compassionate and empathetic.
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“They can explore any religion, fall in love with any race and love who they want to love. I want the same things for my son. “I want him to know he can be strong and brave but that he can also be sensitive and kind.
“I want my son to have a high emotional IQ where he is free to be caring, truthful, and honest.
“It’s everything a woman wants in a man, and yet we don’t teach it to our boys.”