JAY-Z Breaks Down Why He Cheated On Beyonce

As Lemonade and 4:44 listeners already suspected, JAY-Z cheated on his wife Beyonce not all that long ago.

In his big interview with the New York Times, Hov admitted he strayed. And he blamed it on a difficult childhood which made him emotionally unavailable.

“You have to survive. So you go into survival mode, and when you go into survival mode, what happens? You shut down all emotions,” Jay-Z told New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet. “So even with women, you gonna shut down emotionally, so you can’t connect . . . . In my case, like, it’s deep. And then all the things happen from there: infidelity.”

JAY-Z said that therapy has helped him deal with his childhood issues and made him a better husband and dad.

Hov already more-or-less admitted to cheating (and apologized) on 4:44's title cut.

"Look, I apologize/Often womanize/Took for my child to be born to see through a woman's eyes," he rapped.

When asked by Baquet what it was like for him and Beyonce to listen to each other's musical recounting of his infidelities, he said it was hard.

“What was her reaction to your work, and what was your reaction to hers? They must have caused pain for each of you, right?” Baquet asked. Jay-Z responded, “Of course. And both very, very uncomfortable, but the best place in the, you know, hurricane is, like, in the middle of it.”

Hov didn't, however, reveal who "Becky with the good hair" was.