Beyonce author defends allegations she split up with Jay Z in 2005

The man behind a new Beyonce biography says he is confident in the sources he used for the controversial book. Allegations in ‘Becoming Beyonce’ include claims the singer secretly split from Jay Z for a year in 2005. But J Randy Taraborrelli never actually spoke to the singer while writing the book. He says he […]

The man behind a new Beyonce biography says he is confident in the sources he used for the controversial book.
Allegations in ‘Becoming Beyonce’ include claims the singer secretly split from Jay Z for a year in 2005.
But J Randy Taraborrelli never actually spoke to the singer while writing the book.
He says he interviewed old friends, people she worked with when she was younger and sources close to the star now – but he won’t name them.
There are many bits of the book which will surprise fans, such as her mum coming up with the name Destiny’s Child and a claim she didn’t really fancy Jay Z when she first met him.
 But the bigger allegations include an apparent year-long split from Jay Z.
Taraborelli, who has previously published a controversial look at Madonna’s life story, also addresses the rumour about Jay Z and Rihanna allegedly once having an affair.
We spoke to him on Skype from the US to find out exactly how he claims he got hold of all the details.
“Well my job as a biographer is to take a look at all of the persistent rumours and see if it is possible to unpack them,” he told Newsbeat.
“We found the publicist who was working for one of Rihanna’s producers. His job was to promote Rihanna’s first single Pon de Replay.
“In that capacity he began to float the untrue story that Rihanna and Jay were having an affair. This was not true. We interviewed him and he confessed that he planted that story in an effort to promote Rihanna.”
This story has been confirmed by the former publicist Jonathan Hay, who has now publicly apologised to Jay Z and Beyonce.
The writer says his sources “have nothing to gain by talking to me and often they have a lot to lose.”
And he told Newsbeat he trusts them because he can recognise when people are telling the truth.
“This is my 18th book. I’ve had 14 bestsellers, so I and my research team, we really have a sort of gut for this work,” he explained.
“I can tell when somebody is being honest.
“Everybody is interviewed and re-interviewed and then their stories are compared with other stories of people who were in the same situations.
“So we really do a lot of work to corroborate everything that we hear.”
So does he ever worry about getting sued by some of the biggest stars in the world?
“No I really don’t, especially with this book,” he said.
Source: BBC.co.uk