Usher admits he was 'lost' towards the end of his marriage to Tameka Foster as saying, 'I was faithful at heart, but not faithful all the way.'
- Sep 18, 2012
AceShowbiz - Usher bared it all to Oprah Winfrey when dropping by her talk show "Oprah's Next Chapter". The R&B singer, who has just been announced as the official new judge of "The Voice", talked about personal issues that included his divorce with Tameka Foster and their bitter custody battle.
"Towards the end of our marriage I found myself lost, and I just wanted out," he opened up about his marriage woe. "I was faithful at heart, but not faithful all the way. Even having a conversation with another woman, period, about matters of your relationship or emotions is, in my opinion, not being faithful."
Talking about their feud, he said, "We don't see eye-to-eye. The friend that I was to Tameka, I don't know that I could ever be again, because I really felt like we were friends. She made us enemies in a way that I could never understood. It wasn't until I was on the stand, where I cried, when I realized, 'Oh, this is an attack'."
In a court hearing, Usher struggled to hold back his tears when he was called a bad role model for his children. When Oprah asked whether he's been an "absentee" father, he replied, "Absentee from the aspect of having to go and work, that probably would be her version or idea what absentee would be. But no, I'm not an absentee father at all."
Usher was also accused by Tameka of trying to win sympathy by asking to postpone court hearing following her son Kile Glover's death, but he denied the accusation during the chat with Oprah. "I've been a man of integrity throughout the entire process, which I hope my boys will understand. That's the way to go. That's the way to be," he insisted.
He additionally cleared up rumor that he ditched Kile's funeral and never visited him in hospital. "It hurts me to hear people speculating that I wasn't at the funeral. I absolutely was at the funeral. I was at the burial as well," he claimed. He got emotional when recalling his time with the teen, "We cooked together, we laughed, we sang. He loved to sing and dance. He loved to tell jokes."
Usher eventually was awarded primary physical custody of their minor sons, 4-year-old Usher Raymond V and 3-year-old Naviyd Ely Raymond. After the ruling, Tameka revealed her plan to file an appeal as she tweeted, "Money can buy many things... But in the end. Truth & goodness will prevail. I must continue to believe this. Stand firm."
