Jay Z has confirmed a long-standing rumour that he has been unfaithful to his wife Beyonce in the past.

Speaking to the New York Times Style Magazine in an interview published on Wednesday (November 29th), the hugely successful rapper made a revelation that his and Beyonce’s fans had been speculating upon for years.

“The hardest thing is seeing pain on someone's face that you caused, and then have to deal with yourself,” he said.

“You have to survive,” he said. “So you go into survival mode, and when you go into survival mode, what happens? You shut down all emotions. So, even with women, you gonna shut down emotionally, so you can't connect. In my case, like, it's deep. And then all the things happen from there: infidelity.”

Beyonce Jay ZJay Z and Beyonce touring together in 2014

He suggested that he and Bey might have gotten divorced at one point, but that he had undergone therapy to help deal with his past experiences. “You know, most people walk away, and, like, divorce rate is like 50% or something 'cause most people can't see themselves.”

More: Jay Z confirms he and Beyonce have worked on a secret collaboration album

Each of them seems to have dropped hints in their latest work about troubled times domestically. On Beyonce’s critically acclaimed album Lemonade last year, she made allusions to infidelity by her husband, singing “He only want me when I'm not there / He better call Becky with the good hair.”

A year later, on Jigga’s latest record 4:44, he made similar suggestions, rapping “Look, I apologize / Often womanize / Took for my child to be born to see through a woman's eyes.”

Elsewhere in the interview Jay also suggested that he and Beyonce had originally intended a collaboration record together as a result of getting through their problems – but that her album came together a lot more quickly than his, so they were released separately.

“We were using our art almost like a therapy session. And we started making music together. And then the music she was making at that time was further along. So, her album came out as opposed to the joint album that we were working on.”

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