Beyonce's mother Tina Knowles felt so "lost" after the breakdown of her 31-year marriage in 2009, she had to take a break from her hectic lifestyle to build up her self-confidence.

The stylist filed for divorce from the singer's manager dad Mathew Knowles after he was accused of fathering a lovechild with another woman, and Tina, who admits her marriage had been on the rocks for some time, reveals her self-esteem really suffered as a result of the shocking discovery.

Speaking at the Women & Money Leadership Luncheon in Houston, Texas last week (ends03Oct14), she explained, "I just really had forgotten how to live. I had just lost all of myself so I realise now that part of the low self-esteem was, yes, being 58 and having to start over again, and the other part is that I just lost myself.

"I was so busy working and going and taking care of everybody else that I just forgot about Tina.

"I would tell my kids, 'You know what, you can call me and I'll be there if it's something important, but otherwise, I'm taking care of Tina. This is my selfish moment.' And before I knew it, I started liking me again! I started being important, not everybody else."

Knowles, whose divorce was finalised in 2011, has since found love again with actor Richard Lawson, but she confesses it took a little persuading before she decided to date her longtime family friend.

She recalled, "We went to lunch and he said, 'I want to support you during this time,' because Mathew - he's friends with Mathew, too - just got married yesterday. So he came to Houston, I went to L.A. afterwards.

"It's been now a year and five months and I'm in a committed relationship with that handsome man! And I'm in my happiest I been in a long, long time."

Mathew Knowles wed former model Gena Avery in June, 2013.