TLC's Chilli Opens Up: Usher Was My 'First Real Love'

If you’ve always believed that Usher Raymond’s chart-topping, 2004 hit album Confessions was all about the juicy details of his breakup with his then-girlfriend, TLC’s Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas—you’re wrong.

The singer recently came clean with US Weekly insisting that the scandalous lyrics the album came to be most known for had zero to do with how she and Usher split, and insists that she will always care for him deeply.

“We were together when he recorded that album,” Thomas tells the magazine. “All of those songs on Confessions, that was about Jermaine Dupri’s situation. Usher was just singing it. But people kind of bought into it, it was just the timing of our breakup when the album came out.”

Although neither Chilli nor Usher ever spoke officially about the exact cause of their breakup, many close to the couple always alluded to that fact their union was as passionate as it was explosive and that he did something unforgivable to her.

“So people assumed that album was about us, but it was not,” she continued. “And Usher and I weren’t oil and water. We broke up because I guess it was that time or whatever…he was that real love for me.”

This may come as surprise to fans that watched the ratings smash hit CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story on VH1 this week, which chronicled Chill’s turbulent, yet passionate ups and downs in her relationship with producer Dallas Austin. But, Chilli insists that when it’s over, it’s over, as far as she’s concerned. “In any relationship, even when it came to my relationship with Usher, when it was time to make a move, I had to do that,” she said. “I don’t care how much my heart was hurting.”

So could there still be something there between them? “I’ll always love him forever because he was my first adult love, a real love,” she confessed. “But we’re cool, we’re really cool. There’s no hard feelings, nothing like that. It’s all good.”

It’s nice to see celeb exes playing nice.

Are you still cool with your first true love? Or better yet, are you still together today? Tell us about it below!