Usher Thought His Career Was Over After Having an Emotional Breakdown on Stage

Music artist Usher has been known to use real-life issues to inspire his music. But there was a point where he feared his own personal problems might’ve overwhelmed him, and perhaps even cost him his music career.

How Usher’s break-up from Tameka Foster caused a live breakdown on stage

Usher had a few high-profile relationships before finding his current partner. Perhaps one of his most well-known relationships was with Tameka Foster. The two started dating in 2005, before marrying each other in 2007. But their marriage only lasted for two years before their divorce in 2009.

Usher confided that the split wasn’t an amicable one, with the pair eventually fighting for custody rights over their children. In 2012, Usher recalled an incident where he was having an emotional breakdown over the situation. He was unable to see his sons at the time, which resulted in the singer walking off stage in the middle of a show.

“I had even said that I had a sinus infection because I never talked to anybody about my breakdown,” he once said in an interview with Oprah (via Contact Music). “I didn’t want them to say, ‘Wow, he’s unstable, he can’t cope with being an entertainer and a dad… So that was going on in my mind; it was because I could not see my boys, and right as I’m getting ready to open up my Berlin show, I’m expecting them. They don’t come, and I’m gonna be gone for two months.”

The response from fans at the concert made an already difficult situation even worse for Usher. But he confided that it made eventually being able to see his son again all the more cathartic.

“I think I made it through the first number and when I lifted my voice, I remember it just not being there,” he said. “It was just gone and I felt like I would never perform again. Wow. I’d never been booed before, I felt like a failure. I felt like a failure to them (the fans), I felt like a failure to my sons. I just felt helpless, what can I do?

“I broke down and I didn’t get myself back together for a minute. I cancelled a lot of dates and eventually, I picked the tour back up and I was able to see them (his sons) on the computer, and get a sense that they were at least Ok.”

Usher didn’t regret his marriage to Tameka Foster

From the beginning, there were possible signs that Usher and Foster weren’t meant to go the distance. Usher revealed that his mother was one of a few who didn’t believe in the marriage. According to the singer, she wouldn’t even attend their wedding ceremony because of these feelings. Usher also felt that Foster made them enemies when he was hoping they’d at least maintain their friendship.

But despite the way the marriage ended, Usher asserted that he didn’t regret his marriage to Foster, citing it as a learning experience.

“I appreciate the relationship for what it was,” Usher once told People. “Even though it didn’t work out, I’m glad we got together. I love her as the mother of my children; we just couldn’t be married.”

The true realities of marriage seemed to hit the pair after giving birth to their first child. Usher confided that the two would argue frequently over their lifestyles, which would later play a part in their divorce.

“We’re two different people, and we have two different goals. It just was never going to work out 100 percent,” he said.

Tameka Foster didn’t consider herself friends with Usher

The two were able to continue co-parenting their children despite their differences. But Foster didn’t consider them to be friends. Still, she held out hope that would change one day.

“He and I are definitely cordial and we co-parent very well. Are we friends? I’d say no. I’d like for us to be friends. I miss my friend, he was my best friend before he was anything else. That’s my homie. We cool,” she once told Hollywood Unlocked.

She further commented on why she might’ve wanted to rekindle her friendship with Usher.

“He’s a stylish guy and he’s really cool,” she said. “I’d like to bounce things off him like, ‘Yeah, what do you think about this? Should I put this out?’”