NEWSUsher Discusses Stepson Kile Glover's Death With Oprah Winfrey
Sept. 17 2012, Published 4:06 a.m. ET
It was undoubtedly the saddest story of the summer — this past August, Usher's 11-year-old stepson, Kile Glover, tragically passed away after his inner tube was hit by a Jet Ski on Lake Lanier, Ga. The singer is now opening up to Oprah Winfrey about that day and the bitter custody battle with his ex-wife, Tameka Foster, that followed.
"I miss Kile," Usher says 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."
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Contrary to reports, Usher says he was indeed at Kile's funeral.
"It hurts me to hear people speculating that I wasn't at the funeral," he says. "I absolutely was at the funeral. I was at the burial as well."
Usher and Tameka were already embroiled in a custody battle, but put aside their differences when tragedy struck.
"I asked that we not go back to court. It was a personal request that I made to the judge, it was a personal request that I made to Tameka that in this time of grievance that she take that moment to deal and let's deal with this later," he told Oprah.
Shortly after, though, the custody case geared up again, and Tameka slammed the Grammy winner as an absentee father.
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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. But no, I'm not an absentee father at all."
On August 24, a judge awarded Usher primary physical custody of his two sons with Tameka, who later stated that she would appeal the decision.
"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."
