Usher's fiancée Tamara expecting a baby

Singer awaits his first-born

Thursday, 28 June 2007

It's official: Usher is going to be a daddy.

Just a week after his fiancée hinted that babies could be in their future, the pop star and Tameka Foster have announced that they're expecting their first child together, due in the fall.

"We are extremely excited at this point in our lives planning our wedding and the joy that comes with expecting our first child together," the couple said in a statement released to the Associated Press Wednesday. "We hope people will be happy for us and respect our privacy during this happy period in our lives."

Usher, 28, and Foster, 36, first became serious a year and a half ago, she told Essence.com in an interview last week.

"What people don't realize is that Usher and I were friends for nearly seven years and I worked as his personal stylist for five years. I was the only female friend he felt he could talk to."

When asked about plans for babies, Foster added: "Yes, I do plan to have children with Usher. This is the man I love and plan to spend the rest of my life with, so why wouldn't I want to share that bond of bringing another life into this world with him?"

This will be the fourth child for Foster. Usher, meanwhile, is due to release his follow-up to the multiplatinum-selling album Confessions later this year.