"People make it all about the cheating and betrayal and, yes, that's a part of it because that is something you have to heal from," Tina Knowles-Lawson said of Beyonce's creation. "If you really listen to the poetry, it is one of hope and redemption, and hopefully that can be healing for people."
Though the visual album is made up of vignettes covering the hurt, betrayal and depression caused by Jay Z's alleged infidelity, Knowles-Lawson said "Lemonade" comes from a good place in Beyonce's heart, and is intended to help others through the pain of relationships soured.
"It could be about anyone's marriage," said Knowles-Lawson. "I think that everybody, at one time or another, has been betrayed and lied to, and it's about the pain, and it's about the healing process, and it's about how do you get past that and move on."
Knowles-Lawson is no stranger to the pain of infidelity either. Her marriage to Mathew Knowles, Beyonce's father, ended in 2011 after their relationship deteriorated years earlier. She says it was her children who helped to build her up again after the divorce.
"I remember my first little pity party, and I called them crying and, you know, they all came," she recalled. "We had a slumber party, we watched old movies all night and ate ice cream. It was very healing."
Now, happily remarried to actor Richard Lawson, Knowles-Lawson says she and her daughter are both on paths of renewal, leaning on each other to turn lemons into lemonade.
"My children are my rock," she said. "Its just been the best gift God could have given me."