Tameka Foster Raymond is speaking out on her short-lived marriage to superstar singer Usher Raymond as she promotes her newly released memoir, Here I Stand.
The book title bears the same name as her ex-husband’s 2008 album.
While their marital union only lasted two years, Foster Raymond contends that their time together as man and wife was born out of real love.
“The truth is, I really, really loved my husband,” Foster Raymond said to Page Six. “It wasn’t bulls–t. It wasn’t gold-digging. I always said that I took a pay cut when I married him.”
Foster Raymond, 50, who has been a stylist for big-name acts like Jay-Z, Patti LaBelle and Lauryn Hill, began dating the “Nice & Slow” singer in 2005. While she understood being in the spotlight given her clientele, she knew that her life would “turn up a few notches” after she and the eight-time Grammy-winner became an item, but she admitted to BNC’s Black News Tonight host Marc Lamont Hill in July that the lack of support “took me a little bit by storm.”
One of the people who didn’t support the union was Usher’s mother, Jonetta Patton, according to Foster Raymond. She alleges in her memoir that Patton, who also served as Usher’s manager at the time, led her son to believe that Foster Raymond was older than she had told him, causing him to call off their initially planned wedding in the Hamptons in July 2007. Foster Raymond, who is eight years older than Usher, was accused by Patton of undercounting her age by five years.
The wedding was postponed to the following month and Patton was noticeably absent, as reported by Today.
Foster Raymond would go on to tell Black News Tonight host Marc Lamont Hill that she had no regrets about the brief marriage.
“First of all, I have two beautiful children with him,” Foster Raymond said. “He treated me really well during the marriage, fort he most part.”
Usher previously stated that he felt that their marriage may not work shortly before the birth of their second son, Naviyd Raymond, on a 2012 episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter, now known as Oprah Prime. He said he noticed insecurities beginning to show and that she wasn’t “coping well” with the pressure of “being married to Usher and all that came with that.”
On his sixth album, 2010’s Raymond Vs. Raymond, Usher addressed his own feelings about the divorce in the single, “Papers.” The two battled for custody of their two sons, Usher “Cinco” Raymond V and Naviyd.
The “OMG” singer won primary custody of both boys, according to Page Six.
In addition to her memoir, Foster Raymond has been keeping busy with her youth organization Kile’s World Foundation, named after her son from her first marriage who tragically passed away in 2012 at age 11, according to her official website. The nonprofit foundation offers art-based camps to provide lessons in singing, painting, dancing, acting and music production for children ages 10 – 17.
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