Usher Wins Custody Battle Against Ex-Wife

Usher‘s recent spate of trouble has reached a climax: A judge has awarded him primary custody of his two boys, beginning Sept. 1, in a ruling passed down on Friday (Aug. 24), the Washington Post reports.

The verdict concludes the drawn-out legal battle with his ex-wife, Tameka Foster Raymond, in which she accused him of using drugs in front of and being an absent father to their two sons — Raymond V, age 4, and Naviyd, age 3. She also claimed he bogusly mourned his stepson’s death in July. Earlier this week, Usher was held in contempt of court for violating sections of their 2009 settlement agreement.

The trial involved emotionally charged testimonies wherein Usher started crying on the stand and called his ex-wife “inattentive and irresponsible.” During one visit, he claimed Temeka spit and tried to fight his girlfriend and hit him during the dispute. He did not press charges because, he said, “I didn’t want the boys to know that their father put their mother in jail.”

It’s been a rough summer overall for the 33-year-old R&B heavyweight. In addition to the nasty face-off in court and burying his stepson after a jet-skiing accident, Usher had to call 911 after an intruder broke into his home in July.