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Usher: I Didn't Fire My Mom!
Tuesday June 10, 2008

Usher
Usher and mother Jonetta Patton arrive at the launch party for "Atlanta Peach" magazine on March 31, 2006 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Frank Mullen/Getty Images

Usher claims he never gave his mom Jonetta Patton the pink slip.

In 2007, word spread that he axed her as his longtime manager because she did not get along with his wife Tameka Foster.

But the new dad, 29, tells July's Vibe, "I decided to not fire, not get rid of, but to give [my mother] the ultimate compliment — to retire her to be a full-time grandmother.

"My mother and I decided to change her situation, together," he adds. "There was a conversation. I didn't write her a letter or pink slip her."

He faced criticism when he proposed to Foster, his former stylist, in 2007 (some speculated it was just a publicity stunt). Their first wedding was canceled at the last minute (the two later tied the knot in Atlanta).

"Am I so much of a bad guy because I decided to get married?" Usher says. "Am I so much of a bad guy [because once I got in the situation] I decided to stand for something, build a foundation and think about my future? As a man, you would respect me for not turning my back on it."

They welcomed their son, Usher Raymond V, last November.

"The swagger I possess now definitely comes from my wife," he says. "And my son completes me. He changes my perspective on what life is, and what matters.

Balancing fatherhood and work is still tough.

“It gets harder because I don’t want to be [in the studio]. I want to be in the house," Usher says. These are the days of my son’s life, these first three years. I want to be there. The challenge is having it all.”

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