“She has helped me through some of the hardest times in my life and my career.” “I have an incredible partner and manager,” says Usher. When he’s not with them, he spends most of his time with his manager –girlfriend Grace Miguel, who, at 44, is eight years older than Usher and has been part of his career for three years. He won primary custody of them when he divorced their mother, Tameka Foster, in 2009, after two years of marriage. Usher lives in Atlanta with his sons Usher V, age 6, and Naviyd Ely, 5. Or, as Usher describes these things: “I get to see life through rose-colored glasses a lot of the time.” Then he laughs. (Just to be clear: Last season, Usher did not lobby his buddy LeBron James to come home, because that would be against NBA rules.) He has played the Super Bowl and Michael Jackson‘s funeral, and discovered Justin Bieber, provided him with the Usher playbook and set him loose upon the world. He has a profitable perfume line and owns a small piece of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. He has acted on Broadway ( Chicago in 2006), starred in movies (he’ll play Sugar Ray Leonard opposite Robert De Niro in the forthcoming Hands of Stone) and coached two seasons on NBC’s The Voice, winning the second time around.
THIS COVER STORY FIRST APPEARED IN BILLBOARD MAGAZINE GET THIS WEEK’S ISSUE HERE OR SUBSCRIBE TO BILLBOARD HEREĪnd why not? During a two-decade career, Usher, 36, has sold nearly 24 million records in the United States alone, won eight Grammy Awards and, with 2004’s Confessions, scored the top-selling album of the 2000s.