When did Jay-Z start dating Beyoncé?
Jay-Z and Beyoncé are two of the biggest rap and pop stars on the planet, forming arguably the most popular musical couple in the world. The pair first met in 2000 at the MTV Spring Break Festival in Cancún, Mexico. At the time, Jay was 30 years old and Bey was 18. The rapper performed at the festival as a solo artist, and the singer attended as part of Destiny’s Child.
However, they didn’t start dating until the end of 2001. Jay-Z rapped about the pair meeting at a time when she was in a relationship on the song ‘713’ in 2018. He raps on the record, “Fate had me sittin’ next to you on the plane/ And I knew straight away, uh/ The next time we would speak was like two years away/ You had a man, you shut it down until you two had a break/ I bet that dude rued the day.”
He continues, “You kept me up on the phone while you were away/ You came back, I let you set the date, Nobu on the plate/ I brought my dude to play it cool, my first foolish mistake.”
During an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Beyoncé has also talked about her and Jay-Z just being friends for the first period of knowing each other. “We were friends first for a year and a half before we went on any date, on the phone for a year and a half, and that foundation is so important in a relationship,” she said. “Just to have someone that you just like is so important, and someone that is honest.”
The duo later appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair together in 2001. Jay-Z has since said about that time, “We were just beginning to try to date each other.” In 2002, Jay collaborated with Beyoncé for the first time on his hit song ’03 Bonnie & Clyde’, which appeared on The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse and peaked at number four on the Hot 100 and number two in the UK Singles Chart.
The following year, Beyoncé took things a step further by releasing ‘Crazy in Love’ alongside Jay-Z, which soared to number one across the globe and won Best R&B Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the Grammy Awards. They eventually made their red carpet debut as a couple at the VMAs in 2004.
The pair got married on April 4th, 2008, in a ceremony believed to have taken place at their penthouse in Manhattan, but details have always been kept private. They now have three children together: 12-year-old Blue Ivy and seven-year-old twins Sir and Rumi.
Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s relationship hasn’t always been rosy. In 2014, viral footage surfaced of a fight breaking out in an elevator, involving Jay, Bey and her sister Solange. Many believed the incident was the result of rumours that Hov had cheated on his wife.
Beyoncé released her surprise Lemonade album in 2016, which all but confirmed that Jay-Z had been unfaithful to her. “You can taste the dishonesty, it’s all over your breath,” she sings at one point on ‘Pray You Catch Me’, with another line on ‘Denial’ outright asking the question: “Are you cheating on me?”
Jay-Z admitted to infidelity during an interview with T Magazine in 2017. “You know, most people walk away, and like divorce rate is like 50 per cent or something ’cause most people can’t see themselves,” he said. “The hardest thing is seeing pain on someone’s face that you caused, and then have to deal with yourself. So, you know, most people don’t want to do that. You don’t want to look inside yourself. And so you walk away.”
The couple have since overcome their issues, releasing a collaborative album as The Carters in 2018. Everything Is Love debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with features from Quavo, Offset, Ty Dolla $ign and others. As well as collaborating on music, they’ve also toured together through the On the Run Tour in 2014 and On the Run II Tour in 2018.