Usher got candid about the time the singer got his “heart broke[n]”.
When Usher proposed to Chilli in the early 2000s, she declined, leaving him heartbroken.
According to what the 45-year-old recent Super Bowl halftime performer told People on Thursday, he proposed to the TLC star during their three-year relationship, which spanned from 2001 to 2004.
“If I am to be honest, I was her No. 1 fan, and she was my superstar,” he said of the “No Scrubs” singer, who is seven years older than him.
“At the age of 8, I put her poster on my wall and said, ‘Man that girl is so beautiful. One day I’m going to meet her,'” he recalled.
Usher's desire to meet Chilli was fulfilled, but their love story didn't end happily ever after.
“I wanted to marry her. I proposed and she told me no,” he revealed. “I went through a great deal of pain after that, not trusting women or wanting to open up.”
The Yeah!singer acknowledged that he "hurt her too," even though he claimed the circumstance "broke [his] heart."
Usher revealed that Chilli "had very specific rules that didn't work" for him, citing that the singer was in her early 20s when they first dated.
“We were missing each other. I really did want to have a different type of relationship where she was there with me, and she couldn’t be. She didn’t believe that I was actually in love with her as much as I was.”
In a June 2023 interview with People, Chilli expressed similar feelings, saying that trust concerns and divergent values were major factors in their breakup.
Usher, who was married to two separate women at the time, made it apparent that their relationship was amicable despite her claims to have been in touch with the Confessions Part IIfrontman until 2019.
“We were cool with each other, but I was very careful with that,” he told People.