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Usher Opens Up to Oprah Winfrey About Stepson Kile’s Death

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Usher on June 22, 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Summer 2012 was a very difficult one for Usher and his ex-wife Tameka Foster. The warring pair briefly called a truce in their bitter custody battle when Kile, Tameka’s 11-year-old son from a previous relationship, was gravely injured in a tragic jet ski accident — eventually passing away in August.

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“I miss Kile,” Usher, 33, told Oprah Winfrey of his beloved former stepson in Sunday’s episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter. “We cooked together, we laughed, we sang. He loved to sing and dance. He loved to tell jokes.”

The “Scream” singer, who visited Kile at the hospital in his final days and attended his funeral, said he bristles at rumors to the contrary.

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Usher, his mother Jonetta Patton, and Oprah

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“It hurts me to hear people speculating that I wasn’t at the funeral,” he said. “I absolutely was at the funeral. I was at the burial as well,” he said.”

The Grammy winner and Tameka were back in court shortly after Kile’s death, with a judge awarding him custody of their two sons Usher V, 4, and Naviyd, 3.

In his chat with Winfrey, Usher slammed Tameka’s in-court allegations that he cheated or was an absentee dad.

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“Absentee from the aspect of having to go and work, that probably would be her version or idea what absentee would be,” he argued. “But no, I’m not an absentee father at all.”

“I was born to do what I’m doing as a dad,” Usher said. “I realized that once I had a child. When I had them, that’s when they became a priority. It wasn’t because of this case.”

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