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Decoded: The Underlying Narrative of Beyonce’s Lemonade and Her Marriage

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Isaac Brekken/Getty ImagesBeyonce‘s visual album Lemonade was a lot to process on Saturday night, since it highlighted the alleged infidelity of her husband, Jay Z, through intense imagery of pain, anger, hurt and reconciliation.  But according to one expert, Beyonce didn’t just air her dirty laundry as a ploy to sell music: she did it to declare her freedom.

To better understand the bitter and sweet of Lemonade, ABC News Radio spoke with Essence’s relationships editor Charreah [shu-REE-ah] Jackson, who explains that the album is a way for Bey to express her truth, find reconciliation, and get her chance at a happy ending.

“If she just wants to sell a million copies, there are much easier ways for her to sell music than to be that vulnerable…to allude to the fact that her own marriage, which is a part of her own marketing, could have gone through such a terrible time,” explains Jackson.  “I think her objective was just to be free, to be herself. If you really listen to the lyrics, it’s really someone who fought to be free of anyone’s misconceptions about her — but also of her own story.”

As Jackson points out, “If she was still upset about anything that happened in her past, she wouldn’t be in a place to share this with the world.”

“It was so powerful,” she adds. “But it’s so clear she went through the pain, because she ends it with the video of her wedding…as ‘Beyonce Knowles Carter.'”

Jackson also offers this takeaway from Lemonade: “What we are seeing in Beyonce…is, ‘Your strength is in your story.’ Your strength is in your vulnerability, how much you are willing to share.”

Jackson adds, “She is someone who is so meticulous about what she shares publicly, so as she continues to let down those walls, and let people see new sides of her, that’s her strength.” 

As for Jay Z’s surprising willingness to appear in a project that essentially outs him as a cheater, Jackson points out that he actually doesn’t show up in Lemonade until the “hope” and “forgiveness” portions of the film.

Says Jackson, “You see the footage of them as a couple, the marriage video of them with their family and their daughter later [on in the film], when it’s really about what’s now…and what does the future look like for her.”

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