Beyoncé's personality has become a big mystery, even to her most devoted followers. It's partly because she hasn't done any interviews since 2013.
As a result, fans of the Renaissance artist looked back at her old interviews to find what could have traumatized her from doing them. Many speculated that it was that one time she was on The Tyra Banks Show where Banks seemingly made her uncomfortable.
Here's what really happened.
Inside The Interview Tyra Banks Did With Beyoncé
During her interview with Beyoncé, Banks had this cringe segment called "Beyoncé My Name, Say My Name" where she replaced the first syllable of the singer's name with a word that's linked to her question. For instance, she called the Break My Soul hitmaker, "Brie-yoncé" before asking her about her favorite cheese. Though Bey said the game was "cute," fans thought she looked uncomfortable with the cringe variations of her name.
"This did not happen. Beyoncé wanted out," one tweeted after an edited clip of the interview went viral in 2020. "I am thoroughly convinced that this is why she doesn’t interview nobody anymore because Tyra traumatized her." A Redditor also said: "This is so cringe, and I can't even imagine what Beyoncé was thinking. I'm sure Beyoncé told her management team to never book her on these cheap talk shows ever again."
When the video resurfaced online, fans had just started to slam Banks for her "mean girl" moments on America's Next Top Model. So naturally, a lot of fans attacked her for "mocking" Beyoncé and talking too much for an interviewer — or as one commenter described: "I feel like Tyra still thinks of herself as a 7 year old girl demanding that everyone at the thanksgiving get together stop whatever they were doing to watch her do impressions, dance, and strut down a fake runway made of bed sheets."
How Tyra Banks Feels About That Beyoncé Interview
Though she didn't directly address the viral interview, Banks revealed in a 2018 Buzzfeed interview that Beyoncé was her favorite Tyra Show guest. "I loved, loved, loved Beyoncé coming on The Tyra Show. She would come all the time," she gushed, adding that the singer was hands-on with the interview edits. "When Beyoncé came, she'd come two hours before the show started and damn near stayed two hours after it was over, looking at tape and making sure everything was okay," explained the former Victoria's Secret Angel. ​​​​​​
"She was such a perfectionist. She needed all that time and I gave it to her. She didn't know I was looking at her, but I got to see her rehearsing, and telling her crew to do this and do that," Banks continued. She also spilled some tea on Bey's mysterious personality. "Back in the day, people thought Beyoncé was just like 'Yes, ma'am. I'm from Houston and I'm just so nice and happy,'" she recalled. "She is a nice girl, but she's a business woman and I got to see why she's so successful. She knew lighting, sound, every single thing...so, she was fun. And she always did something a little extra, crazy on my show, which was fun."
The Real Reason Beyoncé Stopped Doing Interviews
It's unclear why Bey stopped doing interviews. But in 2015, Vogue notably featured her on a cover without an interview — an unusual deal for the magazine. The cover story was accompanied by an essay on the musician instead. "It was definitely posed to me as … call it a think piece if you want," the writer, Margo Jefferson recalled, noting that she "had no contact with her [Bey's] camp." This all started after the Obsessed star's 2013 documentary, Life Is But a Dream where she opened up about the struggles of being a public figure.
"When I first started out, there was no internet — people taking pictures of you and putting your personal life, or exploiting your personal life as entertainment. I think people are so brainwashed," Bey said in a scene. "You get up in the morning, you click on the computer, you see all these pictures and … all you think of is the picture and the image that you see all day, every day, and you don't see the human form."
She also said that she wants fans to separate her work from her personal life. "And I think when Nina Simone put out music, you loved her voice. That’s what she wanted you to love, that was her instrument," she continued. "But you didn't get brainwashed by her day-to-day life, and what her child is wearing, and who she’s dating, and, you know, all the things that really … is not your business. And it shouldn't influence the way you listen to the voice and the art. But it does."
