Listen Live
Majic 102.3/92.7 Featured Video
CLOSE

When Jay Z and Beyoncé first got together in 1999, she was a star but a sheltered one. At 19, she still lived with her parents in Houston —

Jay Z, then 30, had emerged from the Brooklyn projects as a hip-hop powerhouse.

The source says Beyoncé was most interested in Jay’s mind. “Jay’s a kingmaker; she recognized that. This was a come-up for her, no question. She gave him class, he gave her cred. She had to learn the ropes as presented by Jay — but really, this was mostly about business.”

The source says the elevator fight after the Met Ball was really over Jay’s protégé Rihanna, whom he allegedly planned to meet later that night at his 40/40 club. “Solange was like, ‘Enough is enough — you must be [screwing] Rihanna,’” says the source. “To many people who know them, they know it’s not out of the realm of possibility.”

It all supposedly started when Jay Z was said to have cheated with Casey Cohen and got caught.

Beyonce cheated with her bodyguard Julius De Boer have surfaced several times in the past few years.

According to the source, they shunned Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s wedding because it was too low-rent for the Jay Z/Beyoncé brand. “They are guarding like hell their status,” the source says. “Beyoncé wasn’t going to allow a Kardashian to socially climb her. And Jay didn’t want Kanye with Kim — he thinks it’s bad for business. I think Jay lost a little respect for Kanye there.”

Today, the source says, it’s not whether they’ll split, but how they’ll split — adding that the only time Jay and Beyoncé are really together is on stage. They’re allegedly traveling with marriage counselors, but Jay — as he’s always done — spends much of his time on the phone, tending to business. “His phone’s constantly ringing,” says the source, “Jay trying to make deal after deal.”

Get the rest at Page Six