It’s a dangerous time to be named Becky or Jolene. Following the release of Beyoncé’s newest album, Cowboy Carter, fans are once again speculating about the identity of the other woman in Beyoncé’s life.
‘Becky with the good hair’ has long been believed to be a reference to the woman Beyoncé’s husband, rapper and music mogul Jay Z, cheated on her with.
Queen Bey first referenced Becky on her 2016 album Lemonade, singing on the track Sorry: ‘He only want me when I’m not there / He better call Becky with the good hair / He better call Becky with the good hair.’
The line led to an Internet frenzy, with online sleuths certain they could figure out Jay-Z’s mistress’s identity from the hints in that line alone.
No one ever found out for sure who Beyoncé was referencing, and it seemed like we might never know. Until Cowboy Carter dropped.
Eight years later, people are once again on the hunt for Becky after Dolly Parton herself references Becky on the new album, reigniting the online fervour.
The iconic singer recorded an intro for Beyoncé’s reimagining of her classic hit Jolene in which she says: ‘Hey miss Honey B, it’s Dolly P. You know that hussy with the good hair you sang about? Reminding me of someone I knew back when, except she has flaming locks of auburn hair, bless her heart. Just a hair of a different color but it hurts just the same.’
Given the controversial reworked lyrics of the song, it seems clear that the same woman Beyoncé referenced in 2016 may very well be the same one she’s warning away from her man on Jolene, which was recorded in 2019.
A famous anthem for women who suspect their men of infidelity, Dolly reportedly wrote Jolene about a woman who worked at a bank and regularly flirted with her husband, Carl Thomas Dean.
Parton told NPR in 2008: ‘She got this terrible crush on my husband. And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us—when I was saying, “Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money.” So it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.’
Beyoncé’s notorious rival has much more explosive origins. Before the album’s release in 2016, speculation that Jay Z may have had an affair was already circulating. Lemonade seemed to confirm the rumours, telling the story of a marriage rocked by infidelity brought back from the brink of collapse.
Jay Z told his side of the story on his 2017 album 4:44. ‘Yeah I’ll f**k up a good thing if you let me,’ the rapper says on the track Family Feud. He continues: ‘Let me alone Becky.’
Several theories emerged in the wake of the famous couple’s lyrical hints, and some people are sure they know the identity of the other woman who, having now suffered Dolly Parton’s wrath as well as Beyoncé’s, can’t seem to catch a break.
Here are fans’ theories about the identity of Jay-Z’s notorious alleged mistress.
Rachel Roy
Fashion designer Rachel Roy, 50, was reportedly seen talking to Beyoncé’s sister, Solange Knowles, before Solange’s notorious confrontation with Jay in an elevator. This contributed to rumours that Roy had an extramarital affair with the rapper, leading Solange to confront Jay in defence of her sister when she found out.
This theory was further fuelled by a post Roy made following the release of Lemonade. Taking to Instagram after Sorry dropped, she wrote: ‘Good hair don’t care, but we will take good lighting, for selfies, or self truths, always.’
She later denied the rumours in a statement: ‘I want to put the speculation and rumours to rest. My Instagram post was meant to be fun and lighthearted, it was misunderstood as something other than that. There is no validity to the idea that the song references me personally. There is no truth to the rumors.’
Gwyneth Paltrow
In 2018, rapper and internet personality Amber Rose, 40, created rumours that Gwyneth Paltrow, 51, was the unnamed other woman, saying on the podcast Make Speidi Famous Again: ‘I definitely think that Gwyneth Paltrow is Becky with the good hair. I really feel like she’s the one who was, like, f*****g Jay-Z. They were like friends, and then, like, you don’t see Gwyneth Paltrow with Beyoncé anymore. But like Beyoncé’s still with Jay.’
Gwyneth’s team were quick to call the rumours false, and the Goop mogul herself later responded to a fan who mentioned the controversy, writing: ‘WHAT??? Of course not, that is ABSURD. Good lord.’
Rita Ora
In 2016, it seemed that no one was safe from Becky allegations. Popstar Rita Ora, 33, shared a photo of herself in a lemon-printed bra while wearing a necklace that appeared to have an initial J on it.
The photo sparked wild speculation that Rita was hinting that she was Jay Z’s mystery woman.
She later hit back at the rumours, saying on Louis Theroux Interviews…, ‘Oh my god, it literally was a coincidence. I didn’t even think about it, I swear. And it wasn’t a J, it was an R. They flipped it ’round and then it looked like a J.’
Diana Gordon weighs in
Sorry co-writer Diana Gordon eventually weighed in on the drama, claiming that Becky was never a specific person as far as she knew.
She told Harper’s Bazaar of the conspiracy theories, ‘She [Beyoncé] has her own reasons for doing things,’ she said. ‘If Becky was somebody to her, I had no idea who it was. I just thought it was funny that everybody was like, “Who is it?” like it was this personal person that we all knew about. I was just laughing.’
She clarified that while the ‘good hair’ part of the moniker may seem specific, to her it was a reference to colourism within the Black community.
She said: ‘To me, it was nobody. To me, when I was thinking about my song, it was Jolene from the Dolly Parton song. It was a metaphor, too. “With the good hair,” just meant like you’re dating a light-skinned black girl, because “good hair” is just what we say in the Black community for women who have not-so-kinky hair. It’s like, “Oh, she got good hair. It’s curly, it’s wavy.” It’s just a metaphor for the lighter skin colourism thing in the Black community.’
The multiple women theory
Many people continue to speculate that Beyoncé’s Jolene and Becky with the good hair aren’t specific references to individuals but rather monikers meant to denote a mistress generally.
It’s possible that Beyoncé didn’t find out about a specific affair of her husband’s but rather a general trend of womanizing behaviour.
Jay Z himself lent some credence to this theory, rapping, ‘I apologize, often womanize,’ on the song 4:44. ‘Took for my child to be born/ See through a woman’s eyes/ Took for these natural twins to believe in miracles/ Took me too long for this song/ I don’t deserve you.’
Still, this hasn’t kept fans from speculating on social media.
While we may never know for sure who she is, if we were Jolene/Becky with the good hair, we’d certainly be watching our backs.
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