Vogue Williams used the latest episode of her podcast to question why Usher continues to work with Chris Brown, and to criticize comments the singer made defending his former mentor Sean "Diddy" Combs.
Williams and co-host Joanna McNally raised the issues on My Therapist Ghosted Me after a video of a fan rejecting Usher's onstage advances during The R&B Tour went viral.
The fan, identified as Gabrielle Cheyenne, was brought out on stage as part of a regular segment where either Usher or Chris Brown dances for an audience volunteer. After she appeared reluctant, Usher sent her off stage. Cheyenne later said on social media that she had not wanted to dance with Usher in the first place , she wanted Chris , and that she had been offered a VIP upgrade because of what she called "pretty privilege."
Williams was not impressed by takes suggesting Usher had handled the moment gracefully. "People are being like 'Oh, he's so good. He understands consent,'" she said on the podcast. "It's nothing f**king to do with that. He was p**sed off that she got up and didn't want to get involved in it and that's why he sent her off stage."
She then turned her attention to Usher's choice of touring partner. "There's something about him , isn't he touring with Chris Brown?" she said.
McNally noted the irony of the fan's preference. "She's like, 'Oh, hold on. I want the guy who beat up Rihanna, if you don't mind. That's who I'm choosing to get a lap dance off, please,'" she said.
Chris Brown, 37, pleaded guilty to felony assault in 2009 after physically beating his then-girlfriend, pop star Rihanna, hours before the Grammy Awards.
Usher's Diddy Comments Draw Fresh Attention
Williams also took aim at Usher's comments about Sean Combs, better known as Diddy or Puff Daddy. "Usher said about P Diddy that 'Puff Daddy was misunderstood.' Can you imagine?" she said on the podcast.
In a Forbes interview published in March, Usher used the word "misrepresented" rather than "misunderstood," though the remarks drew heavy backlash either way. "I don't have anything negative to say about Sean Combs because my experience was not what the world has seen, and how he's been, you know, misrepresented," Usher said in that interview. He added: "I'm not saying that every man is perfect. I'm not saying that all of us don't have flaws, but I can't with any sense of humanity, not recognise the valuable contributions that this man made."
Usher and Combs have a relationship spanning decades, with Combs serving as Usher's mentor in the early 1990s. Diddy was convicted on July 2, 2025, on two counts of transportation for the purposes of prostitution and is serving a four-year sentence. The conviction followed the release in 2024 of 2016 hotel surveillance footage showing Diddy physically assaulting his then-girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura, which corroborated allegations she had made in a November 2023 lawsuit , claims Diddy had previously denied.
Diddy responded to Usher's supportive comments through his spokesperson, telling TMZ that he had "always had love and respect for Usher" and appreciated his words.
Chris Brown's Latest Legal Trouble
Brown's own legal record extends well beyond the 2009 Rihanna assault. In 2017, his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran was granted a five-year restraining order against him after sharing threatening text messages and voicemails in court. Brown publicly denied those allegations.
Most recently, Brown pleaded guilty this week to affray at Southwark Crown Court in London in connection with a 2023 nightclub attack in the UK. More serious charges , assault, attempting to cause grievous bodily harm, and possession of an offensive weapon described as a tequila bottle , were dropped. He is due to be sentenced on October 26. The affray charge carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
The R&B Tour is scheduled to conclude on December 12 in Tampa, Florida.
The Fan Fires Back
As for Cheyenne, she defended herself on Facebook after being trolled online. "First off NOBODY is declining to go on stage. I looked good asf, you thought I wasn't gonna let THOUSANDS of people see me??" she wrote, adding that she is normally "quiet" in real life but warned critics: "Don't think that y'all are gonna bully me about an experience that you didn't get."
Usher addressed the incident at a subsequent show. "Now before we get started, don't bring your a*s up here if you don't want to be here," he told the crowd. Taking aim at Cheyenne's "pretty privilege" claim, he added: "God don't like ugly, but he most certainly don't feel too good about pretty privilege either."
