TLC star Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas dated R&B singer Usher 20 years ago. And even though the couple split two decades ago, they continued to hook up for many years after, Media Take Out has learned.
She didn’t say whether she and Usher continued to hook up, after he was infected with that LET IT BURN he’s allegedly been spreading around.
In a new interview with People magazine, Chilli explained her off-and-on relationship with Usher.
“I have never experienced anything like this,” she told PEOPLE , as she opened up about her new life now with boyfriend Matthew Lawrence, 43.
This is the first high-profile relationship Chilli, 52, has had since famously dating Usher from 2001-2004. “We definitely had some chemistry,” she says, when asked about her time with the R&B star. “But working chemistry does not mean it works in your personal life. If we were working, it was great. But outside of that, we’re so different.”
Chilli also says, “It looked great, but in real life … he knew he had to be a certain way with me and he couldn’t.”
While she denies rumors that Usher’s album Confessions is about their breakup (“I was with him at the studio that whole time”), the couple still wasn’t meant to be, she says due to differing values and trust issues. Still, they remained off and on for years, reconnecting when they weren’t in other relationships. “I love hard,” says Chilli.
“I was like, ‘God, why can’t I get over this?’ He couldn’t either.” Leaning on her Christian faith, she eventually cut off contact for good in 2019 “to focus on myself,” she says. “I even stopped dating. Because before that I thought if I met the right guy during that time that I wasn’t over [Usher] it wouldn’t work. I would never want to straddle the fence.”