Family is a centering force for Knowles—and she speaks of wanting to expand hers once the new album is finished. The day we’re talking in the park is two weeks after TMZ published a leaked elevator video of Knowles getting into an altercation with brother-in-law Jay Z the night of the Met ball at the Standard Hotel. It’s a subject she expects in conversation but one she doesn’t want to focus on. She calls the incident “that thing.” “What’s important is that my family and I are all good,” she says. “What we had to say collectively was in the statement that we put out, and we all feel at peace with that."

She is happy to discuss the values her parents taught both of their daughters: hard work along with unconditional love and support for each other. “We’ve always held each other down no matter what,” she says. “That’s something I’m drilling into Julez now."

“I think about all of those phases that I went through,” she continues, looking out over kids playing in the park, “and the ridicule and whatever that I experienced. And I can’t think of one time where I ever felt like I was going to break. That’s because I had confidence instilled in me by my parents. They didn’t always like it—in fact, most of the time they didn’t—but they never asked me to change.”

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