Jay-Z says he and Beyoncé aren’t pushing their kids into showbiz: 'We're just guides'
Jay-Z is opening up about family life with Beyoncé — and not pushing their own dreams and aspirations on their three kids.
"Feeling loved is the most important thing a child needs, you know?" the 51-year-old rapper turned mogul told The Sunday Times in a rare interview. "Not: 'Here's this business that I’m going to hand over to you, that I'm creating for you.'"
The Roc Nation founder continued, "What if my child" — referring to Blue Ivy, 9, and twins Sir and Rumi, 3 — "doesn't want to be in music or sports? I have no idea, right? But as long as your child feels supported, and feels loved, I think anything is possible."
When it's noted that their destinies seem defined as the children of two major superstars — after all Blue already won her first Grammy for "Brown Skin Girl" — he acknowledged that they do have a large legacy to live up to.
“Yeah,” he replied. However, their goal is "just make sure we provide a loving environment, be very attentive to who they want to be. It’s easy for us, as human beings, to want our children to do certain things, but we have no idea. We're just guides."
Jay-Z was being interviewed via Zoom from the $88 million home he and the "Lemonade" singer own in L.A.'s Bel Air section. The couple's compound includes a wellness facility, and he said he mostly goes to the gym “just to be able to catch my children on the lawn" on the walk there. "Those are my goals.”
Asked if it's that easy — to be their guides and just offer support — he said, “Now it is, but Blue is 9 — she’s not a baby anymore.”
Jay-Z called his family his "foundation" and spoke about lockdown together.
“In the beginning it was time for everyone to sit down and really connect, and really focus on family and being together, and take this time to learn more about each other," he said. "And then, as it wore on, it's like, 'OK, all right, what is the new normal?'"
He added that if "anything came from" COVID, "it's that we have to recognize that we're all connected. It's a metaphor for how connected we are," noting, “I'm forever an optimist."
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