has been accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000 with , but his wife, , and her family are standing by him.
“Beyoncé doesn’t tolerate anyone saying anything bad about Jay to her. She’s standing by him now. She’s upset that this is happening, but she believes that he’s innocent,” a source exclusively tells Us Weekly. “Everyone in Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s extended family is trying to process this and [is] talking, but mostly everyone wants to be there for Beyoncé . If she needs to talk about it, her family is there for her.”
Jay-Z, 55, vehemently denied the “heinous” and “idiotic” claims in a statement shared with Us Weekly on Sunday, December 8, and his mother-in-law, , and sister-in-law believe him.
“Even though Solange and Tina aren’t the biggest fans of [Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s relationship], they don’t believe he was involved with this allegation of someone underage,” a second source tells Us. “They do not believe that is something he would ever have done.”
While Tina, 70, has always spoken highly of her son-in-law in public, Solange, 38, has had her differences with Jay-Z. At a Met Gala afterparty in May 2014, Solange began hitting and kicking the rapper in an elevator at the Standard Hotel as Beyoncé quietly stood by. Surveillance video of the infamous fight was obtained and published by TMZ.
Many fans believed Solange’s behavior was related to Jay-Z cheating. Beyoncé went on to chronicle her husband’s infidelity on her 2016 album, Lemonade, and Jay-Z later said that therapy helped him understand the reasons for his unfaithfulness.
“You have to survive. So you go into survival mode, and when you go into survival mode what happen? You shut down all emotions. So even with women, you gonna shut down emotionally, so you can’t connect,” he told The New York Times in 2017. “In my case, like, it’s deep. And then all the things happen from there: infidelity.”
Beyoncé and Jay-Z, who tied the knot in 2008, share daughter Blue, 12, and twins Sir and Rumi, 8. One day after Jay-Z was named in a civil lawsuit accusing him of rape — the lawsuit was originally filed in October and initially only listed Diddy, 55, as a defendant — he and his family put on a united front at the Monday, December 9, premiere of Disney’s Mufasa.
Beyoncé and Blue — who voiced Nala and Kiara, respectively, in the Lion King prequel — posed arm in arm on the red carpet with Jay-Z and Tina at the Hollywood event. Jay-Z referenced his wife and children when shutting down the rape allegations on Sunday.
“My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims, and explain the cruelty and greed of people,” his statement read. “I mourn yet another loss of innocence. Children should not have to endure such at their young age. It is unfair to have to try to understand inexplicable degrees of malice meant to destroy families and human spirit.”
Jay-Z also called the lawsuit a “blackmail attempt” and noted that the claims “would be laughable” were it not for “the seriousness surrounding harm to kids.”
Jay-Z’s mother-in-law raised eyebrows on Sunday when she seemingly “liked” an Instagram post that announced the music mogul had been accused of rape. She subsequently claimed that her account had been hacked.
“I was Hacked!” Tina wrote in a Notes app statement shared via Instagram on Monday. “As you all know I do not play about my family. So if you see something uncharacteristic of me. Just know that is not me!”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
