This pro athlete was not letting Usher get the chance to serenade his wife at one of his concerts.
Usher has been on tour over the last couple of years and has gonna viral for singing to women and feeding them cherries. In an appearance on the Late Night with Stephen Colbert show on Thursday, Sept. 11, the Grammy-winning singer was asked if any of the women's partners were upset at him after serenading their wives.
“Have you ever heard from any angry husbands or boyfriends? Because you are not feeding my wife cherries,” Colbert said.
“There have been a couple of people who are very clear that they didn't want me to feed cherries. Mookie Betts of the L.A. Dodgers, he said, he comes over to me, he's like, ‘No serenade. Leave the cherries at home. No cherries,'” he said of Betts, who's married to Brianna Hammonds.
Colbert responded, “That's a man that uses a bat professionally. I would listen.”
The late-night host then teased the singer how he gets the women excited about these segments at his concerts.
“What are you doing to those women, Usher?” Colbert joked.
“The whole idea of cherries is just giving women the freedom to have fun at a concert,” Usher responded.
Betts is not the only professional athlete to have a run-in with Usher. Kyle Kuzma and Winnie Harlow attended his Vegas concert in July 2023 and when Usher was walking down the aisle, the super model declined a serenade and jumped into Kuzma's arms.
Usher and Keke Palmer Viral Concert Moment
In July 2023, a video went viral of Usher serenading Keke Palmer at his Vegas show. At the time, the actress was in a relationship with Darius Jackson, the father of their son Leodis Andrellton Jackson. His reaction to the video went viral when he responded on X, “It’s the outfit tho… you a mom,” he wrote referring to Palmer's black mesh outfit.
Earlier this year, Usher was a guest on Palmer's show, Baby, This Is Keke Palmer podcast when they addressed the viral situation.
“My reaction [to the show] was just like, ‘I can’t believe it, I haven’t seen anybody perform like this in such a long time,’” Palmer reminisced about seeing Usher live. “Now obviously everybody went crazy. We caused some ruckus in my relationship.”
Usher said it was not his intention to cause any harm and it was all fun when he spotted her in the crowd.
“I don’t want to take any responsibility for breaking everybody’s home up, but that wasn’t the purpose and point,” he said. “It was for you to have a good time with your girls. Come out there and just enjoy… You looked fabulous, by the way. And if you didn’t wear what you wore, I wouldn’t have seen you. You was fabulous, amazing. I was like, ‘Oooh, Keke, come here, girl.’”
Palmer didn't blame the R&B legend either, she admitted that it was a fun time regardless, “People have problems. Relationships have up and downs. If Usher ends up being there, it’s just coincidence.”
