R&B singer Usher's divorce from his wife is final

ATLANTA — R&B singer Usher's divorce from his wife is final, according to court documents.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Bensonetta Tipton Lane issued a final decree in the divorce case Wednesday.

Usher, 31, whose real name is Usher Raymond IV, filed for divorce from Tameka Raymond on June 12. He said the couple had been separated since July 2008 and claimed there was "no reasonable hope of reconciliation" and the marriage was "irretrievably broken."

Tameka Raymond disputed Usher's claim that the couple had been separated since July 2008. She said in court documents filed June 29 that she "had every reason to believe her marriage was intact" and that the two were "intimately together as husband and wife as recently as June 6."

Usher's lawyer, Ivory Brown, said Friday she couldn't comment on the case. BJ Bernstein, a lawyer for Tameka Raymond, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

The couple have two young sons, Usher Raymond V, who will turn 2 on Nov. 26, and Naviyd Ely Raymond, who will be 1 on Dec. 11. When he filed for divorce, Usher was seeking joint custody of the boys. No custody arrangement was detailed in the divorce decree.

The couple married in August 2007 in a lavish ceremony. About 200 people attended their wedding at resort built in the style of a 16th-century-style French chateau on 3,500 hilly acres outside Atlanta.

Before the two married, Usher had a string of romances, most notably his three-year relationship with Chilli from the R&B group TLC.

The Grammy-winning artist's hits include "Confessions," ''Burn," ''You Make Me Wanna" and "Yeah!"

___

Nov 06, 2009 - 4:26 p.m. EDT

Copyright 2009, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.