Jay-Z recently appeared on David Letterman’s show where he got candid about personal issues. Talking about Jay-Z’s supposed infidelity, the talk show host started off as saying, “You and I have one other thing in common, and I have to be cautious how I articulate this.”
“A few years ago, I got myself into some trouble, and the situation was my responsibility and my fault,” Letterman continued. “I did something that I had no business doing, and I regret it, and since then I have tried to acknowledge that mistake and be a better person.”
The married late-night host admitted to cheating on his wife, Regina Lasko, by having sex with female members of his staff and faced blackmail threats in 2009.
Jay-Z also apparently cheated on his wife, Beyoncé. Speculation about the rapper’s infidelity began in 2014 after a video surfaced of his sister-in-law Solange Knowles attacking him in an elevator.
The rumours further garnered further interest after Beyoncé’s 2016 record Lemonade which contained several references to cheating, such as “You can taste the dishonesty/It’s on your breath as you pass it off so cavalier” and a mention of “Becky with the good hair.”
Jay-Z had admitted to cheating on Beyoncé in November.
Opening up to Letterman, Jay-Z stated, “For a lot of us, especially where I grew up and men in general, we don’t have emotional cues from when we were young. Our emotional cue is ‘Be a man. Don’t cry,’ ” he said, mentioning his song “Song Cry,” in which he raps, “I can’t see ’em coming down my eyes, so I gotta make the song cry.”
“It was my way of saying I want to cry, I want to be open, I want to have the emotional tools that it takes to keep my family together. Much like you, I have a beautiful wife who was understanding and who knew I’m not the worst of what I’ve done.”
“We did the hard work of going to therapy,” Jay-Z added. “We love each other, so we really put in the work for years. I like to believe we’re in a better place today. I’m proud of the father and the husband that I am today.”
Speaking about his mother coming out on Jay-Z’s 2017 album 4:44 on the track ‘Smile’ which reveals that his mother Gloria Carter is gay, with the lines “Mama had four kids, but she’s a lesbian/Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian.” Carter herself appears at the end of the song with a spoken word poem, saying: “Life is short, and it’s time to be free/Love who you love, because life isn’t guaranteed.”
Jay Z told Letterman that he had known that his mother was a lesbian, but it wasn’t until he was recording that album that the two spoke about it. That conversation was the first time he heard his mother say she loved a romantic partner.
He said the conversation was so emotional that he began crying. The next day, he sat down and wrote ‘Smile.’
“For her to sit in front of me and tell me, ‘I think I love someone.’ I mean, I really cried,” he said. “I cried because I was so happy for her, that she was free.”
