Usher Raymond credits divorce with helping him discover his idiosyncrasies.
The 36-year-old Confessions singer divorced stylist Tameka Foster in 2009 after two years of marriage, sparking a bitter three-year custody battle that resulted in Usher taking primary care of their two sons.
And although the split was contentious, Usher wouldn’t change a thing about the past.
"Most people probably think I regret it because I ended up getting divorced, but it helped me learn that sometimes I think I know more than I actually do," he revealed in the September issue of Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine.
Usher claims he doesn’t fear taking on challenging circumstances that pop up in his life.
Whenever he’s in need of empowerment, he always thinks back to a key bit of advice late soul singer James Brown gave him.
"'If you stay ready, you ain't gonna get ready' - James Brown told me that right before we performed together at the Grammys in 2005," he recalled. "I’ve never forgotten it, and I’m always telling people, ‘Well, James Brown once told me…'"
Just months after Tameka suffered a cardiac arrest while in Brazil to have a cosmetic procedure, the couple filed for divorce.
She previously confirmed many of her decisions, including her choice to have plastic surgery, helped cause their breakup.
"Pressures from the public, you know," she told ET when asked about their split. "But then I did dumb stuff. I made a lot of mistakes. He always told me, 'You gotta drink a lot of milk.' You know, you gotta toughen up because I wasn't ready for the scrutiny. And then to just hear the things people would say about me, it hurt me a lot. And I think I nagged him as a result of what I was going through."
