Usher is opening up about his personal life including rumors behind his recent divorce, firing his mother and his break up from TLC member Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas on his VH1 'Behind the Music' special. The Grammy winner gets extra candid addressing all of the stories that he has previously stayed mum about and have filled the media for the past six years.The storybook romance with Chilli fell apart leading up to the release of Usher's 2004 album 'Confessions,' which would became the platform for detailing his infidelity. "The cross that I had to bear was that I cheated," Usher explains.
The two had first through their label when a pubescent Usher was just starting off on his R&B career. Chilli had showed him a dance move that Usher incorporated into one of his first music videos. "I thought she was gorgeous," Usher recalls of first meeting Chilli in his teens. "She walks into the room and I'm like nervous as hell."
"I remember thinking," continues Chilli, "Wow, this little boy is so cute," she says of a pubescent Usher. "Look at his dimples and the eyes. I'm 21 and like ... this is weird." Years later, after Usher finally reached manhood and made it to the top of the charts, the two would begin a relationship that ended in betrayal. "I cheated and it didn't work from there," Usher says.
"I never thought of him cheating," Chilli explains. "I felt like a fool." The title track of 'Confessions' told the tale of a man who cheated on his girlfriend only to get the other woman pregnant. "People were thinking this is all about our relationship," Chilli contends. In reality, the story was a chapter from producer/songwriter Jermaine Dupri's personal life.
Usher also talks about his short lived marriage to his former stylist Tameka Foster, the mother of his two young sons. Fans weren't receptive to his new found romance after rumors of Foster's alleged controlling ways hit the news circuit. Further inflicting speculation that his wife was causing a rift within his family was the fact that Usher fired his mother, Jonetta Patton, as his manager, and she did not attend their wedding. While promoting his fourth album 'Here I Stand,' Usher continuously defended his nuptials, a move that didn't sit well with the public. "It just made me look crazy," he said. "I can't say I've one hundred percent given up on love in that way, but I won't be rushing to get married anytime soon." Since splitting from Foster, he has patched things up with his mother, "retired" her as his manager (for the second time), and reclaimed his top spot on the music charts with the release of 'Raymond v. Raymond.'
With a decade-long career that has had both personal and professional triumphs and pitfalls, the 31-year-old is enjoying the single life, being a dad and doing what he does best -- performing. "Life is an evolution so as I look at the reality of who I've become, I'm very happy," he said.
Usher's 'Behind the Music' airs Monday, July 20 at 8 PM on VH1.
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