Beyonce and Jay-Z are arguably the quintessential power couple in show business. They are talented music legends who also happen to be billionaire entrepreneurs and cultural icons who are married to one another. The couple has been together for about 20 years and throughout that time, they have captured the imagination of fans and the media. But is it all perfect and seamless in this couple's high-profile relationship?
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00:00Beyoncé and Shawn Jay-Z Carter are the very definition of a power couple.
00:05The married music legends are each incredibly talented and influential on their own, so
00:10together, they're virtually unstoppable.
00:13But much of the public's perception about this notoriously private pair is shaped by
00:17what little Bey and Jay do share about themselves.
00:20Over the years, tantalizing mysteries about Beyoncé and Jay-Z's relationship have taken
00:25shape.
00:26Here are some of the strangest of those stories.
00:30Beyoncé and Jay-Z usually keep the steamiest details of their romantic highs and lows under
00:35wraps, and that shrug-off approach to personal attention has been consistent from the start.
00:40These two kept their relationship a secret so long that even they don't seem to agree
00:44on when they actually got together.
00:46In 2008, Beyoncé told Seventeen that she was 18 when they met, and that they started
00:51dating when she was 19 in the year 2000.
00:54But Jay-Z told Charlie Rose they'd known each other much earlier, as far back as 1997.
00:59I met her 10 years ago.
01:02What did you say to yourself at that time?
01:05Wow?
01:06I said, that's a fantastic talent.
01:09This could be a bit of revisionist history, since Beyoncé's ex-boyfriend, Lindell Locke,
01:14claimed they'd been together until she began touring with Destiny's Child in her 20s.
01:18In a 2013 Vanity Fair interview with Jay-Z, he admitted that he and Beyoncé were just
01:24starting to date when they appeared together in the magazine's 2001 music issue.
01:29However, despite earlier collaborations and numerous sightings of the duo out and about,
01:33the musicians insisted their pairing was platonic.
01:37Jay-Z all but confirmed their romance in his Black Album single, Public Service Announcement.
01:42The couple finally made their public debut by showing up arm-in-arm at the 2004 MTV Video
01:48Music Awards.
01:50The elevator incident
01:52Though still not talkative about their relationship in public, the couple have presented a solid
01:57front.
01:58However, after making the rounds at a prestigious 2014 Met Gala in New York, a video leaked
02:03by TMZ showed Beyoncé's sister, Solange Knowles, physically assaulting Jay-Z in a hotel elevator
02:10as Beyoncé looked on.
02:12Rumors swirled about the cause of the incident, but the family simply released a shared public
02:16statement dismissing the issue as private.
02:20Beyoncé and Jay-Z commenced with their on-the-run tour as planned the following summer.
02:24However, some subtle lyric shifts during Beyoncé's performances on tour kept tongues wagging.
02:30She later released a flawless remix with a lyric that may have attempted to put the incident
02:35on ice.
02:36Of course, sometimes s**t goes down when there's a billion dollars on an elevator.
02:41The number four
02:42It's just a coincidence that the couple were both born on the fourth of the month, Beyoncé
02:46in September 1981 and Jay-Z in December 1969, but they've since adopted that shared digit
02:53as something sacred.
02:54They were married on April 4th, and each got tattoos of the Roman numeral four on their
02:59fourth fingers to commemorate their union.
03:02They gave their daughter the middle name Ivy, which is another reference to the Roman numeral
03:06four.
03:07There are other, less obvious examples of their devotion to the digit, like Jay-Z's
03:11decision to accept a vegan challenge in 2013, writing on his website,
03:16"...there's something spiritual to me about it being my 44th birthday and the serendipity
03:21behind the number of days in this challenge."
03:2322.
03:242 plus 2 equals 4.
03:27Blue Ivy
03:28There's no doubt Beyoncé and Jay-Z both have an entrepreneurial spirit.
03:33Consider their endless dedication to promoting his title streaming service, or her release
03:37of Ivy Park sportswear.
03:39But when they tried to actually trademark their daughter's name with the hopes of marketing
03:43it as a baby products line, the courts drew a line.
03:46Beyoncé and Jay-Z reportedly applied for trademark protection for Blue Ivy after their
03:51daughter was born in January 2012, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office declined
03:57their request.
03:58According to CNN, if they had won the rights to the name, the trademark would have put
04:02a wedding planner, who'd been using the name for years, in a lurch.
04:06But even without the trademark protection, the proud parents are still free to use the
04:10name as they see fit for merchandising opportunities.
04:14Lyrical hints
04:15When Beyoncé dropped her visual album Lemonade in 2016, it triggered a firestorm of gossip
04:21about the status of her marriage with Jay-Z.
04:23Her legion of fans, the Beehive, went on the hunt to discover who the other woman known
04:28as Becky with the Good Hair was in her Sorry track.
04:32Many wondered if the Carters were still together, given the tone of the album, but Jay-Z showed
04:36up in the second act for the reconciliation phase.
04:39It wasn't the first time the pair shared tough times through music.
04:43Jay-Z's 2006 Kingdom Come track, Lost One, reflected on, quote,
04:48"...how difficult it is to respect a lover as an autonomous human being with separate
04:52needs and goals and timelines than yours.
04:55It's one of the hardest things about a real relationship of equals.
04:59But it's worth it."
05:00And if appearing in the Lemonade reconciliation number wasn't enough, Jay-Z also offered his
05:04own apology tour by way of the lyrics to the title track on his album, 444, in which he
05:10made no bones about his bad behavior.
05:13It seems what the tabloids don't confirm or deny in interviews can definitely be ascertained
05:18from this power couple's music.
05:20Bad dad
05:22Her marriage with Jay-Z wasn't the only relationship Beyoncé may have addressed in her Lemonade
05:27album.
05:28She's also supposedly documented the ups and downs she's had with her father, Matthew Knowles,
05:32who's made headlines in the past for allegedly cheating on Beyoncé's mom and fathering a
05:36love child.
05:38Although father and daughter appeared together after the album's drop to quell any suspicion
05:42of a fallout, Matthew is clearly not in the loop when it comes to his daughter's life.
05:47He revealed that he didn't find out about her second pregnancy until she announced it
05:51to the world on Instagram.
05:52I was shocked.
05:53Let me tell you what happened.
05:54I got a first text, and I'm like, why is this person saying congratulations?
05:59I didn't know myself."
06:01Matthew added that he thought the surprise reveal was a strategic business decision on
06:05the Carters' part and that he and Beyoncé later engaged in a
06:08"...wonderful daughter-dad conversation on the subject."
06:11Even so, a little heads-up might have been nice.