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Beyoncé and Jay-Z famously mended their marriage after the Brooklyn emcee’s admitted infidelities. But it wasn’t an easy process, and both received different kinds of help to repair their family. Whereas Jay-Z looked inward for answers, Beyoncé turned to her past for guidance.

Beyoncé’s ancestry discoveries gave her new perspective on her marriage

Jay-Z’s affair was one of Hollywood’s worst-kept secrets before he admitted he stepped out of his marriage. Rumors began circulating in 2013 after his famous scuffle with his wife’s sister, Solange, in an elevator. They persisted for years, and Beyoncé’s 2016 Lemonade album only gave more weight to the gossip.

In a very candid interview with The New York Times, Jay-Z confirmed that he did cheat on Beyoncé. Additionally, he went even further on the topic, explaining that his rough upbringing in the Marcy projects helped contribute to his actions.

“You have to survive,” Jay-Z said. “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.”

But Jay-Z was already crushed at the idea of losing Beyoncé, and he didn’t want to make his fears a reality. So, thanks to therapy, he chose to fight hard for his marriage.

“You know, most people walk away, and like divorce rate is like 50 percent or something ‘cause most people can’t see themselves. The hardest thing is seeing pain on someone’s face that you caused, and then have to deal with yourself,” he said.

“So, you know, most people don’t want to do that. You don’t want to look inside yourself,” the rapper added.

But it wasn’t just up to Jay-Z to continue the marriage. The decision was ultimately Beyoncé’s, who had to decide whether or not she could trust her husband again. Whereas therapy helped Jay-Z figure out what he really wanted, Beyoncé received similar help from her ancestors. Speaking with Vogue, the “Crazy In Love” singer revealed that she did some extensive history on her family tree. But in trying to learn more about her past, she might’ve ended up learning more about her future.

“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,” she said.

Particularly, it was her blood connection to a slave owner that gave her the strength to maintain her marriage.

“I researched my ancestry recently and learned that I come from a slave owner who fell in love with and married a slave. I had to process that revelation over time. I questioned what it meant and tried to put it into perspective,” she said. “I now believe it’s why God blessed me with my twins. Male and female energy was able to coexist and grow in my blood for the first time. I pray that I am able to break the generational curses in my family and that my children will have less complicated lives.”

Beyoncé allegedly went through an affair with her last boyfriend as well

Although she’s been rumored to date plenty of stars, Beyoncé has only been officially linked to one other person before Jay-Z. She was in a long relationship with her childhood friend, Lyndall Locke, whom she grew up with in Houston. However, Locke admitted that he cheated on the Dreamgirls star when her career started to take off.

“The bigger star she became, the more I didn’t think I was good enough,” Locke once said according to HuffPost. “One night, when she was out of town, I went to a bar with friends and ended up sleeping with another woman. Over the course of a few years I cheated on her about five times, but I never told her until after we broke up.”

Locke even seemed to be somewhat still involved in Beyoncé’s life during her rumored fling with Jay-Z. At the time, he still considered losing her to the business mogul his biggest regret.

“Who cheats on a woman as beautiful as Beyonce? Well, I am that man and it’s something that’ll always haunt me,” he claimed. “Once she began dating Jay Z I knew we were doomed and I could never win her back. But I know that no matter what, she will always love me.”

However, it appears that Beyoncé didn’t have the same wandering eyes that Jay-Z or Locke seemed to have. In a 2013 interview with The Telegram, Beyoncé described herself as very committed in her relationships, which might’ve explained her limited dating history.

“People would be surprised as to the lack of experiences I’ve had,’ she said.. “When I was 12, 13 I had my first boyfriend, and he was my boyfriend till I was 17. At that age, that was a long time. I’ve always been very loyal and a little more mature.”

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