Usher is getting candid about his relationship style and how it affects his life.

In an interview with Vibe that dropped on Friday (August 4), the Grammy winner opened up on what motivates him romantically and how he found the freedom to love authentically.

“I think the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do was be single,” he told the outlet.

For Usher, this is “Because I don’t like to be alone,” he explained. “The idea of creating a life with someone is what I would like to do, maybe because I didn’t have or didn’t see that. And I get to remedy that idea by having an incredible partnership. I can then have the thing that I ultimately wanted to see. You know what I’m saying?”

The singer recently wrapped up his summer residency in Las Vegas and has had a series of public relationships, including with TLC’s Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas from 2001-2003. After they called it quits, Usher married Tameka Foster from 2005-2009, with whom he shares sons Cinco, 15, and Naviyd, 14. Foster and Usher split in 2009, then he tied the knot with his former manager, Grace Henry. They celebrated nine years together before going their separate ways in 2018.

Usher is currently with his girlfriend, Jennifer Goicoechea, with whom he shares a daughter, Sovereign Bo, 2, and a son, Sire Castrello, 1. But to get to this moment in his life, Usher has had to confront his past, especially the areas where he has endured private pain.

“Man, healing took a lot,” he explained to the outlet.

“Maybe I was suffering a lot from—just maybe not necessarily having the kind of love that I would’ve wanted as a kid. And wanting to figure out what that was all about. I didn’t have that relationship that I would’ve wanted to have with my father. And that the relationship that I had with my mother was slowly beginning to be under pressure. Because one, we were working together. Two, we had our differences. Three, I was getting older, but I think it was just life lessons. The therapy really did help me be able to be by myself.”

When asked if he still considers himself hard to love, he said, “You have to ask the people who love me.”