54th NAACP Image Awards - Show© GettyImages

Beyoncé’s mom Tina Knowles-Lawson files for divorce after 8-year marriage: Details

She also requested the court to restore her name to Celestine Knowles.


Daniel Neira - Los Angeles
Senior WriterLos Angeles
JULY 27, 2023 1:11 PM EDT

Tina Knowles-Lawson has decided to call it quits with her husband Richard Lawson after eight years of marriage together. The 69-year-old businesswoman has filed for divorce from the 76-year-old actor, citing irreconcilable differences, making their separation date official as Tuesday, July 25, 2023.

Beyoncé’s mom also requested the court to restore her name to Celestine Knowles and asked the court to terminate the court’s ability to award spousal support to her or Lawson. The pair tied the knot on April 12, 2015, and while the couple has yet to comment on their split, Knowles-Lawson has not been seen with her partner publicly, since they attended the Vanity Fair Oscar party together back in March.

2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones   Arrivals© GettyImages

“Never been one to waste some good light!!! so we had to sneak a picture at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party last night with my boo,” she wrote at the time, posing with the actor at the event. He previously detailed how they first met, after his sister introduced them when she was pregnant with Beyoncé.

© GettyImages

The actor said it took “32 years for my attraction for you to come full circle. It was well worth the wait.” He went on to describe her as “the most beautiful woman I had ever met. Breathtaking.!! The thing that was so striking was that your beauty continued to be enhanced by your incredible heart, compassion, empathy, generosity, and philanthropy.”

“You were pregnant with Beyonce at the time, and married, so my incredible attraction for you then, could only live in my fantasy. As we remained friends throughout the years, I took great pleasure in observing you become the ultimate mother, especially for your own daughters, but also for the way you care for and nurture women all over the world,” he wrote in 2021.