Usher answers today’s questions with confidence and transparency. Seated in his man cave—he smokes cigars and reads here—there are no questions about his upcoming world tour, “Confessions Part II” being crowned the best R&B song of the 21st century by Rolling Stone, or the BET Lifetime Achievement Award he’s scheduled to receive later this month. This is not a music conversation.
Still, his accomplishments are worth noting. Usher Raymond IV was a child—only 15 years old—when he danced his way into the R&B spotlight. His first video, “Can U Get Wit It,” began with the young Atlantan sneaking out of a high school classroom, using the ol’ bloody nose trick. Thirty years later, he’s decimated R&B and pop. He lorded over Las Vegas with his 100-day My Way Residency. Swiped eight Grammys. He headlined the most-viewed Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show of all-time, with nearly 130 million people watching. Today, we push all those numbers aside and have a conversation with Ursh about his four children.
From his first marriage with Tameka Foster, Usher fathered two teenage sons, Usher “Cinco” Raymond V and Naviyd Ely Raymond—16 and 15, respectively. In February 2024, shortly after ending his Vegas run, Usher married his longtime girlfriend Jenn Goicoechea. They share two children together, Usher’s first daughter, 3 year-old Sovereign Bo, and Sire Castrello, 2.
As Usher appears on the scheduled video conference, his on-screen handle identifies him as Dr. Raymond. But we won’t talk much about his commencement speech to the Berkeley School of Music’s class of 2023, where he received an honorary doctorate degree, either. Our focus is on his most prestigious title: Dad.
