Usher to Skip ESPY Awards After Stepson's Tragic Accident
Usher is interviewed during his New Look Foundation 2012 World Leadership conference on June 22, 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
The show must go on, albeit, without Usher.
The Grammy-winning singer will no longer be presenting at Wednesday night's 2012 ESPY Awards in L.A., a rep for ESPN confirms to Us Weekly.
It comes as no surprise that the singer, 33, is laying low in light of his family's recent tragedy: his stepson, Kile Glover, was declared brain dead after a tragic jet ski accident on Friday. (Usher was married to Kile's mom, Tameka Foster, from 2007 through 2009. They were engaged in a heated custody battle over their sons Usher Raymond V, 4, and Naviyd, 3, prior to the tragedy.)
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"He grew close to Kile and, of course, that has nothing to do with the situation with Tameka," a source tells Us. "He loved Kile. This is a terrible, awful tragedy. Usher is torn up."
Glover, 11, was struck in the head by a passing jet ski on Friday afternoon while riding an inner tube with an unidentified 15-year-old girl on Lake Lanier in Atlanta, GA. The two were air-lifted to the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston where the girl was treated for a broken arm and laceration on her forehead; Glover registered no brain activity.
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On Wednesday, ABC news reported that the driver of the personal watercraft, family friend Jeffrey S. Hubbard, 38, is under investigation.
