Sources tell News Usher racing to estranged mama's side after he said nope to nups
Runaway groom Usher is headed back into his mama's arms.
A day after the last-minute cancellation of his Hamptons wedding to pregnant fiancée Tameka Foster, the Grammy winner was bound for Atlanta to make peace with his estranged mother, Jonetta Patton, sources told the Daily News.
"The reason he called off the ceremony is that he couldn't go through with it without Jonetta," said one insider. "He had an eleventh-hour epiphany."
The source said the 28-year-old multiplatinum R&B star was expected to fly home yesterday to Atlanta, where his mother lives. It wasn't known last night whether the 38-year-old Foster, who is expecting his child in the fall, would be traveling with him.
The nuptials appeared to be going full-steam ahead late last week. After some negotiation, Foster had signed a prenuptial agreement, according to people close to the singer.
"Usher conceded to some of her terms," said one source.
On Thursday night, he had his bachelor party. But, on Friday, "he started having second thoughts again," said a source. "He was obviously troubled that Jonetta wasn't coming."
For weeks, it had been unclear whether there was a wedding hall big enough to hold Patton and Foster, who've long been at odds. Last week, sources said, Foster agreed that Patton could come to the wedding - but, by then, Patton had resolved to stay in Atlanta.
"Usher woke up on Saturday and said he couldn't go through with it," said a source. "Apparently, he also couldn't bring himself to call all the people who were invited. He had the wedding planner call everyone in the wedding party."
The word also went out to stunned guests who were about to board a shuttle bus from a nearby inn to the Sagaponack estate of Island Def Jam chief Antonio (L.A.) Reid.
Foster was furious: "She was marching around, cursing," said a source.
Foster, a divorced mother of three, had at one point worked as Usher's stylist only to be forced out by his manager-mother.
Later, she won a more important place in Usher's life, as his girlfriend, and started crossing swords with several of his longtime friends and handlers.
Shortly before Mother's Day, Usher announced that Patton, who had guided him toward superstardom, would no longer be his manager. Usher denied that Foster planned to take over the role Patton once held.
This month, Usher wrote an open letter in People magazine, declaring "I am not being led" by Foster. That letter prompted AOL Black Voices columnist Jawn Murray to call upon Usher to make up with Patton, or risk alienating his fan base of women. "You only have one mother," wrote Murray, whose letter Usher is said to have read last week.
Also factoring into the crisis was a National Enquirer story alleging that Foster had served time for petty crimes and had once dated a drug dealer killed in an ambush.
The story quoted Foster's half-sister, Valencia Foster, as saying, "Poor Usher has no idea who he's marrying."
Valencia Foster also said Tameka had threatened to ban her mother from the ceremony - because she had lost her false teeth!
"Tameka told her: 'You're not coming to my wedding without teeth.'"
Usher's rep, Patti Webster, did not immediately return a request for comment.
