Usher's Messy Divorce Is Final

ATLANTA — R&B singer Usher's divorce from his wife is final, according to court documents.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Bensonetta Tipton Lane issued a final decree in the divorce case Wednesday.

Usher, 31, whose real name is Usher Raymond IV, filed for divorce from Tameka Raymond on June 12. He said the couple had been separated since July 2008 and claimed there was "no reasonable hope of reconciliation" and the marriage was "irretrievably broken."

Tameka Raymond disputed Usher's claim that the couple had been separated since July 2008. She said in court documents filed June 29 that she "had every reason to believe her marriage was intact" and that the two were "intimately together as husband and wife as recently as June 6."

Usher's lawyer, Ivory Brown, said Friday she couldn't comment on the case. BJ Bernstein, a lawyer for Tameka Raymond, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

The couple have two young sons, Usher Raymond V, who will turn 2 on Nov. 26, and Naviyd Ely Raymond, who will be 1 on Dec. 11. When he filed for divorce, Usher was seeking joint custody of the boys. No custody arrangement was detailed in the divorce decree.

The couple married in August 2007 in a lavish ceremony. About 200 people attended their wedding at resort built in the style of a 16th-century-style French chateau on 3,500 hilly acres outside Atlanta.

Before the two married, Usher had a string of romances, most notably his three-year relationship with Chilli from the R&B group TLC.

The Grammy-winning artist's hits include "Confessions," "Burn," "You Make Me Wanna" and "Yeah!"

Comments

[Ponderus]

09:07 PM on 11/07/2009

Some beards are very expensive to have shaved off.

[judyx]

12:15 PM on 11/07/2009

Freedom, sweet freedom.

[PresidentRobertBooth]

01:22 AM on 11/07/2009

***The couple married in August 2007 in a lavish ceremony***


Always a bad idea.

Lavish ceremony is the kiss of death for a marriage.

[the964kid]

10:28 PM on 11/06/2009

How many millions did it cost him?

[dct1999]

10:40 PM on 11/06/2009

He can afford it. He has two children under the age of two, raising them while respecting their mother should be his biggest concern.

[AfroGoddess]

05:29 PM on 11/06/2009

Doesn't Usher have an album out or coming out? I don't know whether to consider him childish going into a marriage that everyone has suspected from getgo, or for bowing to public pressure to let her go.

Divorce sure won't bring back high album sells. Usher and Chris Brown need to do a "Lil Boys" comeback tour.

[Bluejay00234]

06:40 PM on 11/06/2009

Interestingly enough he has a new song called "papers" which talks about a man wanting to file for divorce from his wife, and right on time I might add.

[BlueZoo]

07:06 PM on 11/06/2009

"Pressure to let her go?" Are you kidding? Maybe from those who knew Tameka and, possibly, his own Mother who had warned him against this broad! Before he married this shrew, they lived across from my niece and I saw them on a daily basis. Tameka screamed at him like a fishwife and physically assaulted him for all the neighbors to witness. He never once struck her back and many men would have done so! When my niece asked him for his autograph one day, he very sweetly said yes and Tameka came flying out of the house screaming that he shouldn't sign one thing! Considering my niece is 42 years old and not the slightest bit interested in selling Usher's autograph but just getting it for posterity, this was ridiculous! This all happened in a gated community of zillion dollar homes in Atlanta! She was in it for the money and now she's got it!