Usher Says ‘The Hardest Thing That I’ve Ever Had To Do Was Be Single’

Singer Usher Raymond had a chat with VIBE recently and during the conversation, the crooner spoke about the hardest thing he’s ever had to do, and not surprisingly, it has to do with love — or a lack thereof. 

“I think the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do was be single,” he told the publication.

The reason being single was so hard for the 44-year-old was because “I don’t like to be alone,” he admitted. “The idea of creating a life with someone is what I would like to do, maybe because I didn’t have or didn’t see that. And I get to remedy that idea by having an incredible partnership. I can then have the thing that I ultimately wanted to see. You know what I’m saying?”

Usher has had a few public relationships over the years, both a high-profile relationship and a whole marriage, but he’s currently with music exec Jennifer Goicoechea. The two have been an item since 2019. The couple share a daughter, Sovereign Bo, 2, and a son, Sire Castrello, 1. Aside from the children he has with Goicoechea, the eight-time Grammy award-winning artist is also a dad to his two oldest sons, Usher “Cinco,” 16, and Naviyd Ely, 14. He had them with his ex-wife, Tameka Foster.

For Usher to get to a place where he could have healthy relationships, he said he had to do some self-work. 

“Man, healing took a lot,” he explained. “Maybe I was suffering a lot from—just maybe not necessarily having the kind of love that I would’ve wanted as a kid. And wanting to figure out what that was all about. I didn’t have that relationship that I would’ve wanted to have with my father. And the relationship that I had with my mother was slowly beginning to be under pressure. Because one, we were working together. Two, we had our differences. Three, I was getting older, but I think it was just life lessons. The therapy really did help me be able to be by myself.”

When asked if he considers himself hard to love, he said, “You have to ask the people who love me.”

When it comes to the woman in his life who loves him, he doesn’t often talk openly about Goicoechea. But during Usher’s final performance of his popular Las Vegas residency, which ended in July and was notorious for leaving notable women starstruck and their boyfriends upset, he gave a shout-out to his lady. “My GOAT… my love, Jenn,” he said while pointing her out in the audience.