It looks like Usher might have taken things a bit too far with some recent comments on his ex. A couple of weeks ago, the R&B legend was honored at the BET Awards with a Lifetime Achievement award, when he made a speech that seemed to hint at some problems with his former wife Tameka Foster.
The award was in tribute to his thirty years at the top of the music industry, and featured shout outs from the likes of Coco Jones and Childish Gambino. In his acceptance speech, Usher decided to take the opportunity to shine a light on fatherhood. He said that it was the year of the father, when all dads had to stand up for their sons and daughters. He then gave a shout out to his kids, two of whom he shares with Tameka.
What followed seemed to suggest that things were not all good in the co-parents’ relationship right now. Usher said that we all have to “be cool for the sake of the kids,” before referring to the well-known dynamic Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys share with Swizz’s ex Mashonda Tifre. But it was what he said next that threw people off.
Usher Calls Out Tameka When Receiving Award
After talking about Swizz and Mashonda, Usher abruptly said, “I’m trying Tameka.” His words definitely pointed at a personal disagreement between the former couple that it might’ve been better to keep private. But things were made even more awkward by the crazy fact that Tameka was actually sitting in the audience at the award show at the time. In fact, Usher looked straight at Tameka as he was spilling the beans on stage. After an uncomfortable pause, Usher seemed to realize that he might have made a mistake. He laughed and said, “Yeah that’s a heavy one.”
Social media was sent into a frenzy by Usher’s questionable behavior. What a lot of fans didn’t like about Usher’s words was the unfair effect it would have on people’s perception of Tameka.One fan tweeted, “A star of his magnitude mentioning his ex wife in this light can have the masses assuming that she’s the problem or tough to parent with.” They concluded that the singer could probably have”left this in the group chat.”
Another said that it definitely wasn’t the place for Usher to open up like that, and said that it actually made him look like the problem more than his ex. His actions were described as “a manipulation tactic” to try and get Tameka to give in to Usher. It was also noted by online fans that just last Mother’s Day, pictures were posted of the two spending time together. This seemed to show that they were effectively co-parenting, and Usher was wrong to try and make Tameka look bad.
Co-Parenting Problems For Usher and Tameka
A few months ago, Usher shared more details about the ups and downs of their co-parenting journey. People magazine reported on his comments about how their son’s diabetes had affected Usher and Tameka. Usher said as soon as Type 1 diabetes was a reality for them, the life that he and his family had known was changed forever. It was more important than ever that the co-parents made the right decisions for their son to have a happy and healthy life.
Dealing with it was something that required teamwork from Usher and Tameka, who he split from in 2009. And it apparently took a lot of hard work for the ex couple to do right.
But according to Usher, they have learned all the right lessons to make it work. The singer explained that they’d learned that a lack of communication was a breeding ground for disaster. And that they had to find mutual parties who they could both talk to to learn how to handle the situation. For Usher and Tameka, one of those mutual parties was their son’s endocrinologist.
Challenging Co-Parenting
Despite their progress, however, Usher did not shy away from admitting that it had been tough. He even went into detail about how his kids themselves affected their co-parenting abilities. And what he said was pretty shocking. Usher revealed that their kids would often find a way to turn him and Tameka against each other. And that he had learned the hard way that he always had to watch what he said, because his kids were always paying attention.
Still, Usher shared that he and his ex wife had learned what worked best for them. He told us that Tameka’s experience of him was what it was, and vice versa. But if they could find somewhere to meet in the middle to make the right decisions while still being mindful of each other, there could be success for everybody. For her part, Tameka has usually had a lot less to say about Usher than he has about her.
Tameka Discusses Usher’s Surprise Wedding
One of the few times she opened up was shortly after Usher’s surprise wedding to Jennifer Goicoechea last year. TMZ Hip Hop quickly found Tameka to ask for her take on the news. And what she said may come as a shock.
Tameka was being interviewed ahead of the launch of her reality TV series Bold and Bougie.
But after what had happened, it was obvious she would also be asked about Usher and Jennifer’s surprise nuptials.
However, it seemed like the news was not information Tameka had heard about.
While reportedly shaking her head, she told TMZ that she thought he had already been married for a while. She went on to say that she had stopped keeping up with stories about his relationships.
The interviewer responded by agreeing that it was unusual for people to keep up to date about their ex’s love life. But went on to say that after the news of the wedding broke, Tameka’s name was repeatedly brought up on social media. Tameka could not understand why that was. In fact, it seemed like she wasn’t even sure how many marriages her ex had actually been in.
She struggled to say whether this was his second or third. Although she didn’t seem to have any interest in his new marriage, Tameka actually made sure to say only positive things about Usher in response to the questions. She told the interviewer that Usher was a good dad, and that was all she cared about. She also praised his performance at the Super Bowl, saying that he was a great performer.
Tameka Praises Usher
A short time later Tameka doubled down on her praise for her ex in an interview with People magazine. Once again she focused not so much on their old relationship but on how great Usher had been as a co-parent to their children. Tameka said that everything was great between her and Usher when it comes to their kids.
She went on to say that they were friends, and the kids were now at an age where they could say which parent they wanted to stay with on any given day. She went on to explain that the former couple had a very open door policy about their two sons, which means that they let them stay where they want to. Tameka said at the time that it was all going pretty smoothly.
But after Usher’s ill-advised comments during his speech, this might not still be the case.
