Beyoncé & Kelly Rowland Were Allegedly Harassed By Members Of Jagged Edge As Teenagers

Mathew Knowles is busy promoting his new tell-all book… and it honestly sounds like a must-read if there are more stories like this.

As the former manager of Destiny’s Child, Knowles was responsible for overseeing Kelly Rowland and his own daughter, Beyoncé, along with the other members, during the group’s formative years in the 1990s and 2000s. Unfortunately, as part of his job, he did some things during the early days of the group he says he now regrets — like putting the girls on the same tour bus as the all-male group Jagged Edge!

As part of the promotion for his book, Destiny’s Child: The Untold Story, Knowles sat down with VladTV for an in-depth interview published to YouTube on Tuesday afternoon. In the nearly ten-minute long clip, the former head honcho of the iconic all-girl group reveals how Beyoncé and Rowland were allegedly sexually harassed by two members of the R&B set during their tour bus travels.

Knowles recalls the moment he found out about the harassment, too, noting how it proved to be the incident that pushed then-group members LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett to seek out new management. He told the interviewer (below):

“Now remember, the girls are minors. They’re 16 years old. The guys are 21, 22 years old. I have a fiduciary duty with minors, by the law. There’s a certain way I have to manage that. I got a call from Kelly and Beyoncé saying that they were constantly being harassed by two of the members in Jagged Edge. I couldn’t have that. I literally had to put the guys off the bus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. That began all of this drama, and yes, I got an attorney calling me out of the blue to tell me I would be getting a certified letter to tell me that at this point, he was now on an interim basis managing LaTavia and LeToya.”

Very interesting to hear the inner workings here…

For what it’s worth, Jagged Edge’s lineup has forever been the same four members: twin brothers Brandon and Brian Casey, along with Kyle Norman and Richard Wingo. And while Knowles doesn’t name which two members of the group were allegedly the problem, it’s still a very serious (and unfortunate) thing to have to confront, both as a manager, and especially as a dad!

You can watch him discuss more about the incident — as well as his overall approach to managing the girls’ quickly-growing careers in the aftermath — beginning at about the four-minute mark in the interview (below):

Wow!

It’s interesting to hear Mathew admit fault for putting the girls in that situation, and be so open about how Roberson and Luckett dumped him because of it. Obviously, the alleged harassment itself falls at the feet of whichever Jagged Edge members were reportedly doing it, but still, it’s a bad situation for everybody!

FWIW, neither Beyoncé nor Rowland have publicly responded to Mathew’s claims yet. ET reports they reached out to Jagged Edge for comment, but did not hear back. We’ll keep you updated if anything comes up.

What do U think of all this, Perezcious readers?! The music industry is such an incredibly predatory, unforgiving business in so many ways… so scary to put any women in situations like this, let alone teenage girls!!!

[Image via Dimitri Haikidis/WENN/Vlad TV/YouTube]