Usher Says a Pro Athlete Warned Him About Flirting with His Wife During a Sexy Concert Segment: ‘No Cherries’

Though Usher’s sexy serenade at his concerts has proved to be a hit for women everywhere — it’s led to some run-ins with their significant others.

During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday, Sept. 11, the “Caught Up” singer revealed a professional athlete warned him against serenading his wife.

“Have you ever heard from any angry husbands or boyfriends? Because you are not feeding my wife cherries,” Colbert, 61, said.

“There have been a couple of people who are very clear that they didn’t want me to feed cherries. Mookie Betts of the L.A. Dodgers, he said, he comes over to me, he’s like, ‘No serenade. Leave the cherries at home. No cherries,'” he said of Betts, who’s married to Brianna Hammonds.

Colbert responded, “That’s a man that uses a bat professionally. I would listen.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Colbert played a video of the serenade and asked Usher how he mesmerizes the women so successfully.

“What are you doing to those women, Usher?” Colbert joked.

“The whole idea of cherries is just giving women the freedom to have fun at a concert,” he said after cracking a few jokes.

Usher started the bit during his Las Vegas residency in 2022. In May, Usher performed at the 2025 Met Gala in New York City and fed a cherry to Sabrina Carpenter in the audience.

Afterward, Carpenter, 26, posted a screenshot of her dad, David, reacting to the moment on Instagram. “? Weird,” David wrote to his daughter alongside a snap of the performance.

Usher apologized in the comments section of the “Espresso” singer’s post. “Apologies Mr Carpenter 😅🍒,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, in February, Usher opened up about how the moment came to be during an interview on The Jennifer Hudson Show.

“It started with strawberries in Vegas,” he said.

“So, you know, I just figured we try all the fruits until we figured out which one works the best,” continued the Grammy winner. “But cherries were something that I felt was fun and just kind of active. It was a bit erotic.”