Kelly Rowland Says Beyoncé and Solange Are ‘Exceptional’ Moms: ‘I’ve Learned a Lot’ From Them
Some people mistakenly think of Kelly Rowland as simply being one of Beyoncé’s back-up singers in the girl group Destiny’s Child. You may expect Rowland to have bitter feelings toward Beyoncé for living in her shadow for many years. But it turns out that Rowland is grateful to Beyoncé for many things, including her parenting as a working mother.
Rowland recently opened up on Ashley Graham’s podcast, Pretty Big Deal, about the hardships of motherhood and what she’s learned from Queen B along the way.
Kelly Rowland’s music career
Rowland, of course, was one of the three women who made up Destiny’s Child, the group that got Beyoncé’s music career started. Since the group broke up, however, she hasn’t sat around as Beyoncé began to rule the world. Rowland has had her own successful career, too.
She became a solo recording artist during her time with Destiny’s Child and had several hits in the 2000s including “Dilemma” featuring Nelly. Rowland’s first album debuted at No. 1 in the U.K. Since then, she’s released five studio albums. She’s always been an incredibly talented singer and even earned a spot as a coach on the singing competition, The Voice Australia.
Rowland has also started up a relatively successful acting career in more recent years. Some of her most popular movie roles have been in Think Like A Man and Hulu’s Bad Hair. Recently, she filmed a holiday movie called Merry Liddle Christmas, and she opened up about how she felt conflicted about stepping away from her family for this gig.
Rowland’s family life
Rowland married her manager, Tim Weatherspoon, in 2014. They had a wedding in Costa Rica, and of course, Beyoncé, as well as her sister Solange, were among the guests present. Later that year, Rowland gave birth to her son, Titan Jewell Weatherspoon. Rowland is currently pregnant with baby No. 2 at the time of publication, and the Weatherspoon-Rowlands will soon be a family of four.
Although it seems like they are a perfectly happy family, Rowland opened up about how guilty she felt to leave her husband and young son to go film Merry Liddle Christmas. She had taken a pause from work when her son was born. Like so many working mothers out there, she wasn’t sure if leaving him to return to work was the right decision.
Beyoncé and Solange inspired Kelly Rowland
Thankfully, Rowland chose not to let her guilt hold her back from a career. She received advice from those around her. She told Ashley Graham on her Pretty Big Deal podcast, “But, this one mom said, ‘No, it’s important for him to see you working. It’s important for him to see you doing things you love that bring you joy..’ […] Someone told me to bring him in, in my work, because then they understand your space.” That sounds like great input.
Rowland says she was also inspired by watching her former bandmate Beyoncé and fellow recording artist Solange continually killing it as working mothers in Hollywood:
“I watched [Beyoncé] do it all of the time with her kids. She’s such an exceptional mother. I’ve learned a lot from her. I learned a lot from Solange. Solange is such a great mother … I feel like I’m surrounded by these incredible women who constantly feed me when they don’t even know that they are. I just watch them. There’s nothing that they say. They just give me so much life and I love them.
