Beyonce and Jay-Z began dating in 2002, with them working together musically and finally getting hitched in 2008. And today, the couple are celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary.

But the couple’s romance hasn’t always been plain sailing, with the couple hit with infidelity rumours in 2014. At the time, it was speculated that Jay-Z might have had an affair, with this rumour fuelled even more after the Met Gala that same year.

Famously, shocking footage emerged of Bey and her sister, Solange Knowles, with them in an altercation with Jay-Z in a lift during the after-party. The release of the footage led to the family sharing a statement about the incident: “There has been a great deal of speculation about what triggered the unfortunate incident. But the most important thing is that our family has worked through it,” it continued “Jay and Solange… have apologised to each other and we have moved forward as a united family.”

Bey and Jay-Z started dating in the early noughties ( Image: Getty Images for Sean Combs)

Then, in the fallout of the scandal, in her self-titled album, the remix to her track titled Flawless hears the singer seemingly reference the incident when she croons: “Of course sometimes s*** go down when there’s a billion dollars in an elevator.”

And then her 2016 album Lemonade, left the world in a state of shock thanks to the eyebrow-raising lyric from her song Sorry. Thought to be about her husband, Bey sung: “He only want me when I’m not there. He better call Becky with the good hair.”

Many fans were convinced that the rumours about Jay-Z being unfaithful were confirmed with the aforementioned lyric and the Lemonade album, which referenced infidelity heavily. Soon after, Jay-Z released his album 4:44, with the title track off the album seemingly being an open apology letter to his wife.

In the hit, Jay-Z sings about being a “bad” husband. The first verse hears him sing: “Look, I apologize, often womanizer // Took for my child to be born, see through a woman’s eyes // Took for these natural twins to believe in miracles // Took me too long for this song, I don’t deserve you // I harassed you out in Paris // ‘Please come back to Rome, you make it home’.”

In his second verse, he croons: “I apologize // Our love was one for the ages and I contained us.”

The hitmakers have been hit with infidelity claims in the past ( Image: Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

Fast forward to 2024, and it seems that despite the couple celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary, Jay-Z’s alleged infidelity still cuts Bey deep. On her Cowboy Carter album, the hitmaker croons the Dolly Parton hit Jolene, with her changing the lyrics to seemingly reference “Becky with the good hair”. She sings: “Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene // I’m warnin’ you, don’t come for my man // Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene // Don’t take the chance because you think you can.”

But despite the way in which she seemingly alludes to infidelity in her version of Jolene, Bey does touch on the deep love she has for her husband. Also on the track she sings: “We’ve been deep in love for twenty years / I raised that man, I raised his kids / I know my man better than he knows himself.”