Marcus Ingram/Stringer/Aaron J. Thornton/Stringer
Usher is reflecting on the death of his ex-wife, Tameka Foster‘s son, Kile Glover. As The Shade Room previously reported, Glover passed away in July 2012 after a boating accident at Lake Lanier in Georgia.
In a recent cover story for PEOPLE, Usher opened up about the 11-year-old’s passing. The incident reportedly occurred almost three years after the singer filed for divorce from Foster.
Usher explained that he received a call after the incident and immediately assisted his ex-wife, who works as a fashion stylist.
“I received the call back then, she was in Italy at the time, and I chartered a private plane to get her home as fast as I could because she was just so distraught,” he recalled.
The singer explained that although he and Foster weren’t together at the time, he wanted to help her as much as he could.
“We were not even together at the time. But I was like, ‘OK, let me try and be of help to her and help her as much as I possibly can,'” he explained to the outlet. “It’s a real hard thing to lose a child.”
Additionally, Usher opened up about the effect the 11-year-old’s passing has on him and Glover’s brothers. To note, Usher and Foster share two sons born after Glover.
“It hurt me. Kile was an amazing child.” the singer explained. “For the time that he was here, he was a great influence. There’s not a day that his brothers and his mother don’t think about him.”
According to a news release on Lake Lanier’s official website, Kile Glover and a 15-year-old boy named Jordan Shepp were riding inner tubes on Lake Lanier on July 6, 2012.
The boys were struck by a watercraft driven by Jeffrey S. Hubbard. Glover was killed while Shepp was “severely injured.”
“On 07/06/12, at approximately 1525 hours, a personal watercraft being operated by Jeffrey S. Hubbard ran over 2 juveniles being towed on an inner tube by a pontoon boat. Both children were life-flighted to Egleston Children’s Hospital of Atlanta, one with a serious head injury. This incident occurred in the mouth of Big Creek, Lake Lanier, Hall County,” a statement reportedly from the Department of Natural Resources Incident Report reads.
According to the release, Hubbard was indicted by a grand jury on February 28, 2013. Additionally, he was hit with multiple charges, including homicide by vessel, serious injury by vessel, and others.
Furthermore, Hubbard was found guilty of all the charges on February 20, 2014. Then, on March 5, 2014, he was sentenced to four years in prison.
According to the release, Governor Nathan Deal signed SB136, otherwise known as the Kile Glover Boat Education Law, on April 23, 2013. The legislation reportedly lowered the legal blood-alcohol limit for those operating crafts in Georgia.
Additionally, it reportedly mandates “additional training for boat operators and stricter laws on use of personal flotation devices.”
Tameka Foster sat down exclusively with The Shade Room for an episode of ‘TSR Investigates Updatez’ in September 2023. Watch below as she explains how she plans to continue fighting for change in boating education and safety at Lake Lanier.
