Usher is the world famous singer/songwriter known for hits such as “OMG,” “Yeah!” and “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love” which dominated the 2000’s and 2010s, his 2004 album Confessions was one of the highest-selling albums of that decade, and even today, Usher continues to stay relevant as he’s set to headline the Super Bowl halftime show.
However, at the height of his fame, the star became involved in a serious scandal after allegedly having unprotected sex with an individual whilst knowingly carrying a sexually transmitted disease. In 2012 the singer paid $1.1 million to a celebrity hair stylist who claimed she had contracted an STD from Usher.
In 2017, a suit was filed against the 45-year-old by Laura Helm, who claimed he gave her herpes. She was asking for $20 million and the case was dismissed with prejudice which suggests there was some kind of financial agreement, although the amount has not been disclosed. Around the same time as the Laura Helm case, Two other women also made claims against the star and a man even came forward with the same accusations.
Does Usher have AIDS, or something else?
Most of the lawsuits against Usher have claimed that the women who slept with him contracted HSV-1, also known as the herpes virus. There is nothing to suggest that the singer has the AIDS virus which is a completely different disease.
However, just like HIV-AIDS, there is no cure for the Herpes virus, meaning if you contract it, you’re stuck with it for life. There are medicines and ways to treat the symptoms, and people who have the disease can live pretty normal lives, but it never goes away. According to leaked court papers from the first lawsuit the singer supposedly contracted the virus around 2009 or 2010.
During the case against him in 2017 the pop star made no public statements confirming or denying anything, but, according to Forbes, the singer’s interim manager, Grace Akinlemibola, has since come out and stated that Usher has denied having herpes. She went even further by saying “Many of the lawsuits against Usher were filed by people who don’t even have the disease.”
So it’s hard to say with 100% certainty whether Usher truly does have the disease. However, according to California law, failing to disclose an STD to a sexual partner is a misdemeanor. The outcomes of the lawsuits in 2012 and 2017 plus the number of people who have spoken out about Usher certainly suggest that the singer could have an STD and was knowingly spreading it at the time, but nothing can be confirmed.