Baby on the Way for Usher

Wed., Jun. 27, 2007 5:30 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

Yeah! Usher's going to be a dad.

The R&B star and fiancée Tameka Foster confirmed Wednesday that they're expecting a baby this fall, about a week after Foster played coy about just when she planned to have her future hubby's children.

"Yes, I do plan to have children with Usher," the 36-year-old stylist told Essence.com recently. "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?"

Mission accomplished, then.

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

This will be the first child for Usher, 28, and the fourth for Foster, who recently divorced Noontime Music cofounder Ryan Glover.

Also to Essence, Foster adamantly denied rumors that she was pregnant with her ex's child—"If that were the case, the baby would have been born already"—and that she started stepping out with Usher while she was still "happily" married.

"For the record, I was legally separated from my husband, to whom I was married for five years, not 10 as many have reported," Foster clarified. "He knew Usher and I were dating, and he was dating other people."

Usher, who popped the question in January after about a year of romancing Foster, "had nothing to do with what happened between my husband and me," she said. "Between my hectic travel schedule and our personality differences, my ex and I grew apart. There are no hard feelings between us."

While he awaits their new addition, Usher will be busy putting the finishing touches on his as-yet untitled fifth studio album, which is set to drop in November. The first single from his follow-up to 2004's multiplatinum-selling Confessions is due out in September, along with Usher's new signature fragrance.

Most recently, the erstwhile star of the Broadway production of Chicago appeared at the Tony Awards as a presenter, and he can be heard on the tune "Same Girl" on R. Kelly's latest album, the duet-heavy Double Up.