Beyoncé’s nephew has opened up about ‘misconceptions’ about him in a livestream on his social media.
Daniel “Julez” Smith Jr. — the son of Solange Knowles and nephew of Beyoncé — addressed how he feels people often get the wrong idea about him while chatting with viewers during a live stream.
When one viewer asked the 21-year-old, “what’s the hardest about being you?”, he didn’t hesitate before replying: “misconceptions”.
He then expanded on what he meant, explaining that being born into a well-known family has meant attention has followed him since, as he put it, “the start of my life”.
Julez said that level of visibility has led to strangers online picking apart his personal life, and he pointed to one moment that has stayed with him.
He recalled that when he was 13, Solange posted a picture of him online — and people began speculating about his sexuality.
Recalling the incident, he said: “Look, you know, like, the first time I ever heard of myself in the media was I was in seventh grade, and my mom posted this picture of me.
“I was dressed as LL Cool J. I had like this red jumpsuit, I was 13 at the time. Mind you, I had a girlfriend at the time. I went to school and my girlfriend showed me a picture that my mom posted.”
He added: “This is grown a** adults who was calling me gay at what 13?”
Since then, Julez has built a name for himself in fashion, working as a model and appearing on major runways at Milan Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, and Paris Fashion Week — including shows connected to his mom and his aunt Beyoncé.
Born in October 2004, Julez is Solange’s son with her then-husband Daniel Smith. The pair divorced in 2007 after three years together.
In a 2009 interview with Honey magazine, Solange spoke about how she and Smith co-parented their son, noting that their approaches didn’t always match — but that they made it work.
“It definitely has its challenges because there are some things that I’m a lot more strict about,” she said.
“I won’t let him own a video game. No TV in the bedroom – he can only watch a few hours a day. He comes back and tells me these stories about the Wii, and I have to be like, ‘It’s just a Wii, calm down’.”
She added: “I feel really good that [Smith and I are] able to do it together because there are some things that I don’t understand, and as much as I try to get out there and throw the football, I always get hit in the head with it.”