First, I’m going to let People briefly take the reins with some backstory here, with a content warning from me that this is upsetting to read:
Beyoncé, Jay-Z and their 12-year-old daughter Blue Ivy Carter made a public appearance at the premiere of the Mufasa: The Lion King on Dec. 9, one day after the rapper publicly denied a rape allegation made against him.
The singer-actress, 43, reprises her voiceover role as Nala in Disney’s Mufasa (in theaters Dec. 20), the new prequel to 2019’s photorealistic Lion King remake. Joining her as onscreen lioness cub Kiara is Blue Ivy…
Jay-Z, 55, has been accused of raping a 13-year-old girl 24 years ago in a civil lawsuit filed in October by a woman identified only as Jane Doe. After first listing Sean “Diddy” Combs as a defendant, the suit has since been amended to include Jay-Z (whose real name is Shawn Carter).
As of my writing this on Monday night, Jay-Z has vehemently denied the allegations, and Tina Knowles (who also attended this premiere) claims her Instagram was hacked after her account “liked” a post about the lawsuit. (My theory is that she was definitely not hacked but might suffer from a disorder I call, “Whoops I actually didn’t read that post and just liked it reflexively when I saw my son-in-law’s name.”) Variety reported that “none of the three family members were previously announced to press as attending the event, despite their involvement [in the film],” but Beyoncé has a history of being vague about her attendance at events until she arrives, and she and Blue Ivy were surely always planning to attend the premiere, as Blue Ivy voices the main character and her lovely dress is custom Christian Siriano. (Whether Jay-Z and Tina were also planning to come all along is more up to debate, but it seems possible.) Obviously, this is an absolutely terrible situation on multiple fronts; these allegations are shocking and awful. My heart breaks for the victim, and I hope justice is served for her and she finds peace.
On a far lesser note, Blue Ivy is just a kid and she had no hand or part in any of this. She looks fantastic in a great princess dress that any girl her age would love to wear, and she’s showing up to promote her work at a time when no one would have blamed her for not doing so. It’s got to be a bummer for her personally to have her big moment overshadowed. Beyoncé actually also looks really great. Other than that, I don’t have a pithy, peppy ending for this post. I wish I could tell you otherwise.
(Photo by LISA O’CONNOR/AFP via Getty Images)
