TLC’s Chilli Reveals Her Relationship with Usher

Usher was a “real love,” for Chilli the TLC member says in an new interview with Us magazine. The couple broke up in 2003 reportedly over Usher’s infidelity, rumored to be the subject of his smash 2004 album, Confessions. Chilli says the truth of the rumors are about someone else.

“We were together when he recorded that album,” the 42-year-old said of the diamond-selling collection. “All of those songs on Confessions, that was about Jermaine Dupri‘s situation. Usher was just singing it. But people kind of bought into it, it was just the timing of our breakup when the album came out. So people assumed that album was about us, but it was not.”

Maintaining that the two weren’t “oil and water,” the split was apparently inevitable. “We broke up because I guess it was that time or whatever,” she continued, adding “he was that real love for me.”

Without going too much into detail, Chilli, who shares a son with producer Dallas Austin, hinted to the split being her decision. “In any relationship, even when it came to my relationship with Usher, when it was time to make a move, I had to do that,” she said. “I don’t care how much my heart was hurting, sometimes you’re just supposed to be with people for a reason and it’s not always a lifetime. Even if you want it to be, it just doesn’t work out that way.