Usher’s ex-wife Tameka Raymond appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America today to discuss what happened when she was notified that her 5-year-old-son Usher Raymond V almost drowned in a swimming pool accident while at his father’s Atlanta area home two weeks ago.
Tameka says that she does not blame Usher for what happened but she is “angry that it happened on his watch”. A few hours after “Cinco” was taken to the hospital Tameka’s lawyer filed an emergency petition requesting that a judge grant her emergency temporary custody of the couple’s two sons. On August 9 a judge ruled that there was no evidence to support that the current custody order should be modified and allowed Usher to continue with primary custody.
Tameka feels that Usher’s busy schedule prevents him from spending time with the children, and would like to be able to have the children stay with her when he is out on the road touring. Usher was not at home when the incident occurred, but reports say that he was a few miles away in a local recording studio. In the interview she said “I feel like the kids are not getting proper care. And I think the reason for that is he’s not there. There is no amount of care that a caregiver, nanny, grandmother, aunt, anyone… There’s nothing like a mother.”
Usher’s aunt was watching the child when the incident happened. She and a housekeeper attempted to pull him out of the water, but were unsuccessful. Two men who happened to be doing construction on the home came to the child’s rescue, snatched him from the water and performed CPR on him as an ambulance was called to the home.
Raymond told GMA’s Dan Abrams how she felt about the incident.
On where she was when she got the call:
“I was at a dental appointment. And, you know, he doesn’t call me regularly. So when I saw his number come up, I immediately jumped up. I figured he has the boys. I need to get there.”
On her feelings when she arrived at the hospital:
“I was mad, because I was like, ‘How did this happen? Who was watching him? Why was my son underwater for nearly three minutes?’
On the similarities between this incident and when her son Kyle died:
“It was like I relived it. Like, my brain just went into all those modes…I even said on the phone, ‘I’ve had this call before,’” Raymond said.
On filing the emergency hearing
When the incident happened, my attorney filed a emergency motion, so that when my son was released from the hospital, he wasn’t going to have to go back to the house where the incident happened. Because based on our custody schedule, just like now my son was released into his fathers care again, I deemed that an emergency.
On her having to take a psychological test and having a ‘moderately severe mental disorder’
Yes. I’m going to be retested. You would think that from hearing that, it sounds like ‘Wow, she must be cutting the kids or beating them excessively or on crack or selling crack.’ […]
On how she’s being portrayed within the media
I’m just bad, hell on wheels. One thing I will say is, I’m an individual. I don’t have a publicist, I don’t have a manager. I don’t have an agent. I just have regular, working-class friends and family. We don’t know how to fight the machine. […] It’s hurtful sometimes because it’s so far from the truth. You’re talking about a woman that has her own career and to be reduced to some baby mama, that’s bitter and that’s a gold digger, its hurtful.
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