Chilli may be happily in love with her new man, but the singer admits it took years to fully get over her ex, Usher Raymond.
The TLC star opened up to PEOPLE ahead of her new documentary “TLC Forever” about the aftermath of their highly publicized romance. Chilli and Usher famously dated from 2001 to 2004. Unfortunately, the couple split after rumors of infidelity. The 52-year-old says the relationship “looked great” but was actually riddled with some turmoil.
“He knew he had to be a certain way with me, and he couldn’t,” she explained.
Despite a number of trust issues and the couple having different values, Chilli admits that walking away from Usher for good was a huge challenge that took her over a decade to overcome.
“I was like, ‘God, why can’t I get over this?’ He couldn’t either,” she shared. The pair would reconnect anytime they were not involved with other people until Chilli made the decision to cut off contact in 2019. This is the year she decided to focus solely on herself and leave her ex for good. She refrained from dating altogether, fearful that her lingering feelings for the “U Got It Bad” star wouldn’t allow her to be in a healthy relationship with anyone else.
These days, Chilli is happily in love with actor Matthew Lawrence. The two were photographed in Hawaii in August 2022 and reportedly began dating shortly before Thanksgiving of that year. In terms of where she stands with Usher now, Chilli says there are no hard feelings toward him.
