For years fans hinted they wanted to see the reunion of one of their favorite celebrity couples. TLC songstress Chilli recey admitted that after breaking up with entertainer Usher Raymond in 2003, she quietly hooked up with him for years until breaking it off for good in 2019.
People Magazine report:
“I have never experienced anything like this,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, opening up about her happy life now with boyfriend Matthew Lawrence, 43, ahead of the premiere of Lifetime’s new documentary TLC Forever. It is the first high-profile relationship the singer, 52, has had since famously dating Usher from 2001-2004. “We definitely had some chemistry,” she says, when asked about her time with the R&B star. “But working chemistry does not mean it works in your personal life. If we were working, it was great. But outside of that, we’re so different.”
Advertisement
Noting how fans rooted for them as a couple, she says, “It looked great, but in real life … he knew he had to be a certain way with me and he couldn’t.”
While she denies rumors that his hit breakup album Confessions is about her (“I was with him at the studio that whole time”), the couple still wasn’t meant to be, she says due to differing values and trust issues. Still, they remained off and on for years, reconnecting when they weren’t in other relationships. “I love hard,” says Chilli. “I was like, ‘God, why can’t I get over this?’ He couldn’t either.” Leaning on her Christian faith, she eventually cut off contact for good in 2019 “to focus on myself,” she says. “I even stopped dating. Because before that I thought if I met the right guy during that time that I wasn’t over [Usher] it wouldn’t work. I would never want to straddle the fence.”
Fun Fact: Usher was married to Tameka Raymond from 2007 to 2009 and he was married to Grace Harry from 2015 to 2018.
Thoughts?
