Destiny's Step Child LaTavia Roberson tells a British tabloid that her one regret is not talking to Beyonce or Kelly before firing off that angry letter to Mathew Knowles that got her and LeToya Luckett kicked out of Destiny's Child...
From The Sun
LaTavia reveals how she and LeToya began to have “serious issues” with their manager. “Things seemed unfair,” she says. “Beyonce and Kelly had cars. I’m not saying pay cheques were any different, but Matthew used to say a lot of crazy things like, ‘Y’all should be glad I’m giving you money’.
“We were happy for Matthew to stay on as manager, but we wanted another manager to work with him.”
So LaTavia and LeToya wrote their fateful letter to Knowles expressing their concerns. The next thing they knew, says LaTavia, they were out. But they didn’t find out until they saw the video for Say My Name with two new girls in their places. They officially left Destiny’s Child in December 1999, when they were just 18.
“My one regret is that I should have spoken to Beyonce and Kelly before I sent the letter,” says LaTavia. “That is the one thing I would have done different. I would have gone to my sisters and discussed it with them. After that, we didn’t speak for many years.”
Her dreams of stardom crushed, LaTavia became an alcoholic and in 2006 went to jail having failed a drugs test while still on probation for a driving offence. But following a stint in rehab, she has now got her life back on track and plans to open a lingerie business.
She has nothing but positive memories of her former bandmates. “I saw Beyonce in 2003 and we just hugged and talked... it was so emotional,” she says.
“I spoke to Kelly last year and I asked her, ‘Do you understand why we did what we did?’ She said, ‘Oh gosh, yes’. And that was enough for me.
“I am convinced that if it was not for Matthew Knowles we would still be together as a band.”
But she says: “We’ll always be sisters. Nothing can take that away from us.”
