For years, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, one of the music industry’s most influential couples, have navigated the public spotlight while raising their three children — Blue Ivy Carter, Rumi Carter, and Sir Carter.
In September 2024, Beyoncé spoke to GQ about the delicate balance of being a global star and mother.
“I build my work schedule around my family,” she told GQ. “I try to only tour when my kids are out of school.”
Despite their unique childhood, Beyoncé says she does her best to ensure her children enjoy private lives.
“One thing I’ve worked extremely hard on is making sure my kids can have as much normalcy and privacy as possible, ensuring my personal life isn’t turned into a brand,” she said. “It’s very easy for celebrities to turn our lives into performance art. I have made an extreme effort to stay true to my boundaries and protect myself and my family. No amount of money is worth my peace.”
While parenting and sustaining a high-profile career has its challenges, she’s also described it as deeply rewarding.
“Raising three kids isn’t easy,” she said. “Parenting constantly teaches you about yourself. It takes a lot of prayer and patience. I love it. It’s grounding and fulfilling.”
Fans of Beyoncé and Jay-Z are familiar with the couple’s efforts to include their children in their own career endeavors.
“My kids come with me everywhere I go,” she said. “They come to my office after school, and they are in the studio with me. They are in dance rehearsals. It’s natural that they would learn my choreography.”
Read on to learn more about Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s kids.
Blue Ivy Carter, 12
Blue Ivy Carter was born on January 7, 2012. She is Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s first child and has shown interest in music just like her parents.
In 2021, at 10 years old, Blue Ivy Carter became the second youngest person to ever win a Grammy for her collaboration with her mother and Wizkid on the song “Brown Skin Girl.” That same year, the song received an MTV Video Music Award and a BET Award.
Much to fans’ delight, Blue Ivy shared the stage with her mom during the “Renaissance Tour.” Beyoncé revealed in a September 2024 interview with GQ that Blue’s participation in the tour was her own idea.
“She’s a natural, but I did not want Blue onstage,” she said. “Blue wanted it for herself. She took it seriously and she earned it. And most importantly, she had fun! We all watched her grow more and more every night before our eyes.”
While Blue Ivy is the most public of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s three children, she has managed to maintain a balance between her public appearances and private life. On Feb. 20, she was seen supporting her mom at the launch of Beyoncé’s new hair care line, Cécred, in LA. Then, at the 2024 Grammys, Jay-Z brought his daughter on stage to accept the 2nd annual Dr. Dre Global Impact Award that he received at the event.
In his acceptance speech, he gave Blue Ivy a shout-out, saying, “Thank you very much. I used to say it was a sippy cup for Blue, but Blue’s grown up now. She doesn’t take sippy cups, and she has her own Grammys.”
What does Blue Ivy do?
Carter’s eldest has been involved with voice work at a young age. In November 2020, Blue narrated Matthew A. Cherry’s audiobook “Hair Love.” In April 2024, Disney announced that she would voice cub Kiara, the daughter of King Simba and Queen Nala, in Disney’s new live-action prequel “Mufasa: The Lion King.” Beyoncé will also star in the project, voicing Nala
Tina Knowles spoke to E! News in August 2024 and praised her granddaughter’s many talents.
“She’s self-taught and she sounds like a concert pianist,” Knowles said of Blue. “She paints, she draws, she does poetry. She’s just an artistic soul.
“I’m really, really proud of her. I can’t wait until the world gets to really hear.”
One of the highlights of Beyoncé’s massive “Renaissance” tour was having her daughter, Blue Ivy, join her on stage as a dancer during her performance.
Rumi Carter, 6
Rumi Carter is the eldest of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s twins, according to a 2017 Vogue article. Like her twin brother, Sir Carter, Rumi was born on June 13, 2017.
In Beyoncé’s 2019 Netflix documentary, “Homecoming,” she opened up about the “extremely difficult pregnancy” that she went through when she had Rumi and Sir.
“My body went through more than I knew it could,” she said in the documentary.
Beyoncé noted that during her recovery, she became a vegan and started to accept that her body had become curvier.
“To this day my arms, shoulders, breasts, and thighs are fuller. I have a little mommy pouch, and I’m in no rush to get rid of it,” she said at the time. “I think it’s real.”
Beyoncé’s twins have since been featured in a few projects that she’s worked on like her “Black is King” visual album, where they made an appearance. Rumi was also in the music video for “Brown Skin Girl,” along with her sister.
Rumi also took center stage in Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album. In the singer’s song, “Protector,” Rumi is heard asking her mom, “Can I hear the lullaby please?” at the beginning.
The song appears to be a tribute to her children, with Beyoncé singing about motherhood.
She says, “I first saw your face in your father’s gaze / There’s a long line of hands carryin’ your name, mm / Liftin’ you up, so you will be raised / Even though I know someday you’re going to shine on your own / I will be your projector, yeah.”
Sir Carter, 6
Sir Carter is Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s youngest, though only by a minute, according to a 2017 Vogue article. Sir was born on June 13, 2017, with his twin sister Rumi .
Beyoncé revealed in an August 2018 interview with Vogue that she suffered from preeclampsia, a “serious blood pressure condition that develops during pregnancy,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. On the day she gave birth to her twins, she weighed 218 pounds.
“I was swollen from toxemia and had been on bed rest for over a month,” she said. “My health and my babies’ health were in danger, so I had an emergency C-section. We spent many weeks in the NICU. My husband was a soldier and such a strong support system for me.”
“After the C-section, my core felt different. It had been major surgery. Some of your organs are shifted temporarily and, in rare cases, removed temporarily during delivery,” she added.
In October 2023, the “16 Carriages” singer shared a rare glimpse of her twins when she released a video announcing her 2023 movie “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.” At one point in the short, 2-minute trailer, the mom of three can be seen kissing her son, Sir. Another clip shows Beyoncé holding Sir while on a golf cart.
Why did Jay-Z name his daughters Blue Ivy and Rumi? And why Sir?
In an interview that Jay-Z did with “Rap Radar” hosts Elliott Wilson and Brian Miller that was posted on his streaming service, Tidal, he explained how he and Beyoncé came up with the names Rumi and Sir.
“Rumi is our favorite poet, so it was for our daughter,” he said, per ABC News. As for Sir? “Sir was like, man, come out the gate. He carries himself like that. He just came out, like, Sir,” he said.
While the Carters have never explained the significance of Blue Ivy’s name, fans think her middle name, Ivy, may be a reference to the couple’s favorite number, four — in Roman numerals, IV.
