# Do you know who Beyoncé is married to? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 18, 2013, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671 "2013-05-18T12:11:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/141 "2013-05-20T11:12:51Z")
I know who Beyonce is. She was voted People’s most beautiful woman in the world a couple years ago. I know she is married to someone called Jay Z , they have a baby named Blue Ivy, and there was a lot of gossip and speculation she had faked that pregnancy (a surrogate was carrying it) because she was on a talk show on TV and when she sat down, her pregnant belly ‘folded’ right in half as though it was made of foam rubber or something, lol! I know she was the superbowl entertainment the night the lights went out in the dome. Now, Rihanna is someone altogether different. I know she did songs called ‘Umbrella’ and ‘Disturbia’. I know she’s been hooked up with someone named Chris Brown who smashed her face in a few years ago. (In spite of this, he’s more popular than EVER, having legions of fans who keep him a 1%-er). She has been cancelling HER concerts lately due to the popular celebrity ailment known as “exhaustion”. She and Chris Brown play a game where they get back together (because she ‘understands’ him) - split - get back together - split. Drives her fans crazy because she won’t leave her abuser. They are NOT married. This concludes my knowledge of these people, gleaned through tabloid headlines and occasional gossip sites online. As I’m not a fan of any of them, it’s surprising I know as much about them as I do. (O/T I just learned Eminem, who I know for about the same reasons - public hoo-ha’s, one or two songs or videos from some years back, has untold millions of Facebook followers, like in the top five Facebook sites. Astonishing! Why??) ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/142 "2013-05-20T11:50:50Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > This concludes my knowledge of these people, gleaned through tabloid headlines and occasional gossip sites online. As I’m not a fan of any of them, it’s surprising I know as much about them as I do. (O/T I just learned Eminem, who I know for about the same reasons - public hoo-ha’s, one or two songs or videos from some years back, has untold millions of Facebook followers, like in the top five Facebook sites. Astonishing! Why??) Are you honestly asking why the most popular rapper in the world has a lot of Facebook followers? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/143 "2013-05-20T12:04:59Z")
I follow very little sports or celebrity gossip, and I don’t listen to hip-hop, but I had heard of Jay-Z years before I ever heard of Beyoncé or Destiny’s Child. And somewhere between the promotional bumpers and the pop-up news, I learned that they were married. If your browser ever lands on a broad-target internet portal, like Yahoo or Microsoft, or if you ever leave the television on in the background, I think some of these kinds of things are inevitably going to seep through. ---
**Author:** ![VanillaGorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@VanillaGorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanillaGorilla)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/144 "2013-05-20T12:06:06Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > Answer/reply to this without reading the other replies. > Do you know who Beyoncé Knowles husband is? > > I’m asking this because I didn’t…and my girlfriend found this very surprising and weird that I didn’t know. She asked me where I’ve been the last few years. > I wasn’t aware that knowing Beyoncé’s husband was such common knowledge apparently. > > Anyway, after you’ve replied, the answer is: > > Jay-Z. > > A few other questions: > Do you think this is common knowledge (I.E. most people would/should know this)? > Do you think it’s weird or surprising to find someone who didn’t know this? > > I just don’t follow celebrities lives very much, I guess. I did not know. Not in the slightest interested to find out either. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/145 "2013-05-20T12:13:41Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Are you honestly asking why the most popular rapper in the world has a lot of Facebook followers? He’s #5, above Coca Cola and below Rihanna. Only surprised in that he was just everywhere a few years ago and then AFAIK the excitement died down, but he’s still #5. I plead ignorance as to how his career is doing, but I haven’t heard anything about him in a long time. Yes, 1) I’m not in his demographic, and 2) I am an ignoramus. Just making a comment, I have nothing against Eminem and wish him well, but was surprised to see his high ranking on FB. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/146 "2013-05-20T12:25:03Z")
> [@Sr\_Siete](#): > > Since I was buying Jay-Z CD’s before Destiny’s Child even formed, count me with the ones who think of Beyonce as Jay-Z’s wife, and not the other way around. This for me. I imagine that more people familiar with Jay-Z will know of the marriage (Lord knows he drops references to the marriage in plenty of his songs) than will people only familiar with Beyonce. It’s a big part of his image, a small time hood who bootstrapped himself into fame, fortune, and a marriage to someone who arguably was the biggest star in her field. It seems to be a very minor part of her image. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/147 "2013-05-20T12:33:21Z")
Turned out that I knew but had to be reminded. I apparently have a decreasing amount of memory storage space and that little factoid was buried way down on the list, which I think is organized on how interesting a thing is. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/148 "2013-05-20T12:44:39Z")
Jay Zeeeeeeeeeeee. (In American dialect. Out here in civilisation he’d be Jay Zed.) ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/149 "2013-05-20T12:47:53Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Is this supposed to be a trick question? > > Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt aren’t actually married. From what I’ve gathered reading gossip magazine covers: That’s because he’s secretly still in love with Jennifer Aniston. Or Bethenny. Or Honey Boo Boo. Or the new Pope. I get confused easily. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/150 "2013-05-20T13:02:15Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > This. This, this, this, this, this. Pop culture IS culture. It’s contemporary culture. It’s the sea that you swim through if you live in the USA. It’s not mandatory and it’s not some shocking sin if you mostly tune it out, but avoiding it isn’t really some kind of virtue. You’re not living a purified life if you don’t own a TV or radio or don’t read magazines or don’t listen to people talk about what happened last night on the Office. There aren’t any brownie points to be distributed. Ok, but the fact is, if i don’t know who they’re married to, I don’t really lose out on pop culture very much. As far as important cultural information goes, who is diddling who ranks pretty low. I had an art history teacher that enjoyed detailing this among the European and American artists of the 20th century. She was the worst. On top of that, while neither of them are flavor of the month variety artists, neither of these two artists has really done much in the way of groundbreaking or visionary work, imho. They’re certainly very popular, but for the most part they’re an incremental change in style. To offer a counter example, most people know Sonny was married to Cher, what difference does it make? It almost doesn’t matter now to even know who they were. On the other hand, most people get along just fine not knowing who Sister Rosetta Tharpe is, and being oblivious to her influence on music. Heck, I did for most of my life. Even after I found out who she was musically, it was only in the last six months that I found out anything about her personal life. Before that, she was asexual as far as I was concerned. I still grew up playing guitar riffs that I found out later were probably first popularized by her. And really, pop culture is one of those things that is very personal. Most people don’t consume the dominant culture exclusively. Some don’t consume it by will at all. As long as you’re getting some pop culture though, your pop culture tooth gets satisfied. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/151 "2013-05-20T13:12:53Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Jay Z, the asshole who inflicted “Hard Knock Life” on us when I was still in college. Yeah, this. “Hard Knock Life” sucked schweddy balls. I also know their daughter’s name. On a related note, has anyone heard of a guy who goes by “Swizz Beatz”? Apparently he’s the babydaddy of a girl in my daughter’s class. I know nothing of this world. ---
**Author:** ![planetcory](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/planetcory/32/1032_2.png) [@planetcory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/planetcory)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/152 "2013-05-20T13:29:00Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > On a related note, has anyone heard of a guy who goes by “Swizz Beatz”? Apparently he’s the babydaddy of a girl in my daughter’s class. I know nothing of this world. Hip hop producer who rose to fame in the early to mid-2000’s with his horrible but immensely popular production. More famous these days for leaving his wife to be with Alicia Keys. Alicia Keys is an R&B singer. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/153 "2013-05-20T14:53:57Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Hah, I think a few will know Kelly Rowland, but the third member… Michelle Williams. She is quite a hottie herself. [Link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Williams_%28singer%29) Destiny’s Child had some previous members too, but I’ve no idea of who they are and have no desire to learn. Jay Z has become a sports agent lately. Among his clients is Skylar Diggins, the All-American hoop babe from Notre Dame. [Link](http://tracking.si.com/2013/05/19/jay-z-skylar-diggins-mercedes-agent-roc-nation/) ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/154 "2013-05-20T15:18:55Z")
Yes, I do. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/155 "2013-05-20T15:34:03Z")
I know the name and that he is in music business, but that’s it. I also couldn’t tell you the name of a single Beyonce song. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/156 "2013-05-20T15:39:42Z")
> [@Leiko](#): > > Beyonce’s husband is Jay-Z, and I would be shocked to meet someone with even a low level of pop culture consumption to [not] know. Basically anyone who goes to a standard America grocery store with magazines at checkout. There is no reason to be shocked. I’m not delighting in my ignorance, as others have implied. I know that there is a singer named Boyonce, and another one named Taylor Swift. It is not. however, hard to be alive and conscious in America and not know anything about them, or know who Jay-Z is. Sure, I might have seen a cover at the check out stand telling me that Boyonce and Jay-Z got married, and another one about who looks good at the beach this summer. It just doesn’t stick. Imagine seeing a headline at the supermarket that “the atomic number of zinc is 30.” You could read it, and move on to the bikini photos and sex tips. If I asked you a week later, you probably wouldn’t even recall reading about zinc. It wasn’t something you gave any thought to at the time, and it simply didn’t register. Same thing with most celebrity news I’m exposed to. It doesn’t make me better, smarter, or even more interesting. It’s just the way it is. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/157 "2013-05-20T15:46:15Z")
I knew the answer was Jay-Z, but I wouldn’t have known before they were in the news for that trip to Cuba. I would have known who Jay-Z was, but not that they were together. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/158 "2013-05-20T16:00:25Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > This. This, this, this, this, this. Pop culture IS culture. It’s contemporary culture. It’s the sea that you swim through if you live in the USA. It’s not mandatory and it’s not some shocking sin if you mostly tune it out, but avoiding it isn’t really some kind of virtue. You’re not living a purified life if you don’t own a TV or radio or don’t read magazines or don’t listen to people talk about what happened last night on the Office. There aren’t any brownie points to be distributed. > > Beethoven and Mozart and Brahms weren’t some sort of elevated cultural geniuses in their time. Their music WAS the pop culture of their day. They were the Elvises and Madonnas and Elton Johns of their time. Beethoven had some pieces that could be classified as “the Frank Zappa of his day”, really…the Grosse Fugue was as far ahead of the culture as Zappa’s works were when they came out. > > Just because we tend to just consider OLD culture as “Culture” doesn’t mean that today’s culture (POP culture) isn’t a part of culture, period. This is old timey thinking. Segmentation and obliviousness are the new norms. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/159 "2013-05-20T16:07:41Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Yes, but I think there’s a difference between ignorance of pop culture (e.g. knowing who Beyonce _is_, or what she’s famous for\*), and ignorance of celebrity gossip & personal lives (e.g. knowing who she’s married to). Sure. I don’t find this hard to believe. But for someone like Beyoncé or Prince to be completely off the radar, that would take some doing. But… > [@BigT](#): > > You also have the added advantage of not living in this country, if I remember correctly. I’m sure we export a lot of our pop culture to Panama, but it’s still not going to be nearly as ubiquitous as it is here.? …I missed this. If he’s in Panama, that’s a bit more plausible. > [@Colibri](#): > > If you are not interested in sports, you don’t pay attention to the sports news. I suspect lots of people who know that Beyonce performed at the Superbowl couldn’t name the teams that played that year. But they would know that there was a Super Bowl and what it was about. ---
**Author:** ![GovernmentMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@GovernmentMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GovernmentMan)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671/160 "2013-05-20T17:15:42Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Welcome to Earth, GovernmentMan. Will Smith would like a word with you. > > And I think you’re being a bit harsh by the way. Music is super segmented now and someone who doesn’t care to listen to poppy R&B will not hear much about Beyonce if their genre of choice is, say, country. Or rock. Or metal. Or anything that’s not poppy R&B. Yes they would hear about her. Because pop culture is mainstream culture. Those other genres are what would take special effort to be familiar with. Beyonce is all over the media even for things that have nothing to do with her music. I could maybe somewhat sorta buy someone who shuns all popular entertainment not knowing who Beyonce is, but Phèdre nó Delaunay watches TV and even reads gossip sites (!). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-beyonce-is-married-to/658671.md?page=9)