Former Destiny's Child LaTavia Roberson talks Kelly, Beyonce & Matthew Knowles

In an interview with UK publication the Mirror former Destiny's Child member LaTavia Roberson discusses never talked about secrets behind the success of the best selling girl group. As a DC fan, I've always wanted to get the low down on what really happened behind the scenes.  Check out the highlights from the article.


On Kelly Rowland:

Matthew did not mince his words and it can be tough to take that kind of criticism when you are a little girl. We would try not to let it break us. But Kelly was the sensitive one, and sometimes she would go to her room and cry.”The tears fell hard when manager Matthew Knowles, father of bandmate Beyonce, tore into her after a Destiny’s Child show where she had faltered during a dance routine he had drilled into “his” girls. “Where were you tonight, Kelly?” he bawled at her after a gig in Atlanta in 1997. “I watched you mess up 12 dance steps.”

On how she got kicked out off the group:

LaTavia reveals how she and LeToya began to have “serious issues” with their manager. “Things seemed unfair,” she says. “Beyonce and Kelly had cars. I’m not saying pay cheques were any different, but Matthew used to say a lot of crazy things like, ‘Y’all should be glad I’m giving you money’. “We were happy for Matthew to stay on as manager, but we wanted another manager to work with him.” So LaTavia and LeToya wrote their fateful letter to Knowles expressing their concerns. The next thing they knew, says LaTavia, they were out. But they didn’t find out until they saw the video for Say My Name with two new girls in their places. They officially left Destiny’s Child in December 1999, when they were just 18.

On her relationship with Matthew Knowles:

We used to call him Joe Jackson,” says Latavia. “It’s not like he beat us with his belt or anything, but he was very strict. Beyonce was the only one brave enough to stand up to him.”“We worked really hard. It was rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. It would be the four of us and he was like a drill sergeant. When summertime came he would start a camp at his house in Houston. “He would make us wake up early in the morning and take us to Herman Park. There was a three-and-a-half mile track and we would sing while we jogged around it. Then we would go to the house and rehearse. “That’s what our days consisted of, seven days a week. Looking back, working that hard did cost us our childhood. But at the time we were just focused on living out our dreams.”

On her regrets:

“My one regret is that I should have spoken to Beyonce and Kelly before I sent the letter,” says LaTavia. “That is the one thing I would have done different. I would have gone to my sisters and discussed it with them. After that, we didn’t speak for many years.” “I saw Beyonce in 2003 and we just hugged and talked... it was so emotional,” she says. “I spoke to Kelly last year and I asked her, ‘Do you understand why we did what we did?’ She said, ‘Oh gosh, yes’. And that was enough for me. I am convinced that if it was not for Matthew Knowles we would still be together as a band.”


On the different personalities in the group:

“LeToya was the jokester, I was the sassy one, Beyonce was the mamma and Kelly the sensitive one. Watching movies, she’d be the first to cry.  am not going to say that Kelly had bad self-esteem, but she was timid. She was definitely the quiet one of the four of us.

You can read the entire post here:


Wow!! That is all I can say, didnt the girls sign an iron clad confidentiality agreement. In any event I'm looking forward to the book LaTavia!


Thoughts?