HomeCelebrity TalkChilli Speaks Out On (Marrying) Usher

Chilli Speaks Out On (Marrying) Usher

Photo credits: Chilli/Instagram and Usher/Instagram

Usher recently surprised the world by admitting that things did not go as planned when he first proposed to TLC’s Chilli. It was the early 2000s and she turned him down. He was heartbroken but as Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas has since explained, it all looked good from the outside, but ‘he had to be a certain way with me, and he couldn’t’. Sadly, back then, they didn’t share the same values.

Why Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas Rejected Usher’s Marriage Proposal

Chilli, then a member of the iconic pop group TLC, captured the hearts of an adoring public. Everyone was rooting for her in her quest for love and romance with Usher. Their relationship ran from 2001 to 2004 until ‘trust issues’ forced them apart. Although the romance didn’t stay the course, nearly two decades later there was still a connection.

According to an insider responding to Usher’s revelation, even then Chilli had a deep respect for marriage. She was convinced that if she married Usher, it would end in divorce. To her way of thinking, not marrying him at all would be better than facing that sort of heartbreak.

Was Usher’s Album About Chilli and Usher’s Relationship?

Back in 2004, the song themes in Usher’s album ‘Confessions’ invited speculation and sparked rumors of his infidelity. Songwriter, Jermane Dupri fanned the flames when he revealed that it had been inspired by Usher’s personal life. Chilli firmly put these rumors to bed years later in 2013, telling US Weekly that she and Usher had still been together when the album came out and it was not about their relationship but about Dupri’s own. Usher had just been the singer.

When Chilli finally cut ties with Usher, she stopped dating too, as she explained in an interview with People in June 2023. She was worried that if she did meet someone, she still wouldn’t be over Usher and ‘it wouldn’t work’. Even after they split, they’d meet up when they weren’t in other relationships. The love story wasn’t fully over until 2019 when Chilli decided enough was enough, she needed to focus on herself. 

Chilli and Usher Found Love Again 

They have both found love since. Usher married fashionista Tameka Foster in 2007 and had two children with her before they split in 2009. After a drawn-out custody battle, Usher was given full custody although they co-parent now. He remarried. This time to Grace Miguel whilst on vacation in Cuba in 2015, but it didn’t last long and came to an end in 2018. In 2019 he began dating Jenn Goicoechea, a successful industry executive, and became a father to two more children born in 2020 and 2021. Their Las Vegas wedding surprised family and friends.

Chilli found her match too, Boy Meets World actor Matthew Lawrence. They started dating in November 2022. At 42 he is much younger than her, but it is by her account a ‘drama-free relationship’ and as she told it to People, she had never experienced anything like it before. When asked if she had found her ‘forever partner’, she replied, ‘Absolutely’.   

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