Usher is adamant that he did not fire his mother as his manager just days before Mother’s Day last year. He simply “retired her,” the singer says in Vibe Magazine’s July issue.
He admits to having disagreements with his mom, Jonetta Patton, over what he felt was her lack of support. (Their fall out led to her skipping his wedding to Tameka Foster last August.) But he says the separation from his mother was necessary for his mother’s own sake.
“(I paid her) the ultimate compliment — to retire her to be a full-time grandmother,” said Usher, whose son with Foster is just over 6-months-old. “My mother and I decided to change her situation. There was a conversation. I didn’t write her a letter or pink slip her.”
The 29-year-old star admits the split was hard for him, but necessary for his career: “I hurt more than anything over these last two years when I felt my mother didn’t really embrace my situation. My mother is an aggressive person. She makes hard decisions, and she caused me to make a hard decision as well.”
