Tina Knowles took to social media over the weekend to deny reports that her daughter Beyoncé received $10 million as payment for speaking and appearing at Vice President Kamala Harris’ October rally in Houston.
Beyoncé and her Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland attended the event and threw their weight behind Harris. Beyoncé also addressed the crowd and urged voters to vote for Harris.
But rumors swirled online that the 43-year-old Grammy winner had been paid $10 million to attend and speak at the rally. Right-wing commentator Candace Owens also propagated that rumor on her podcast, The Independent reported.
“Beyoncé allegedly got paid $10m for that pathetic little endorsement of Kamala Harris. What was it, three minutes? $10m for three minutes of her life?” Owens, who is known for stirring controversy, said.
And though Owens admitted that those rumors were yet to be determined as true, she stated that there should be “some truth to these reports” because Harris’ campaign has “gone completely mum and refused” to provide answers about those claims.
Owens’ post was later blurred by Instagram and labeled as “false information” that had been “reviewed by third-party fact checkers.” Beyoncé’s mother also shared a screenshot of the blurred post on her Instagram page and wrote that it had been “flagged on Instagram as fake news and taken down.”
“It’s called False Information. Sadly other platforms with a lack of integrity still have it up,” she also wrote. “The lie is that Beyonce was paid 10 million dollars to speak at a rally in Houston for Vice President Kamala Harris. When In Fact : Beyonce did not receive a penny for speaking at a Presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harrris’s Rally in Houston.”
Knowles also said that her daughter “actually paid for her own flights for her and her team, and total Glam.” “They are not only lying and disrespecting Beyonce’s name but they are trying to further discredit the power of our vice president! When does the lies and rumors stop? Of course you won’t see this in the news !!!!!” she added.
Knowles condemning the rumors also came after Oprah Winfrey denied claims that she was paid $1 million to host a town hall event for Kamala Harris during her presidential campaign, Face2Face Africa previously reported.
Oprah responded to the claims when TMZ asked her about it. She told the celebrity and entertainment news outlet that those claims were “not true” and she “was paid nothing — ever.”
The billionaire business and media mogul subsequently addressed those claims in the comment section of a post by The Shade Room. “For the live streaming event in September, my production company, Harpo, was asked to bring in set design, lights, cameras, crew, producers and every other item necessary (including the benches and the chairs we sat on) to put on a live production,” she explained.
“I did not take any personal fee. However, the people who worked on that production needed to be paid. And were. End of story.”