Who is Jenn Goicoechea? Everything to know about Usher's wife
Usher and wife Jennifer Goicoechea are enjoying newlywed life.
The couple tied the knot Feb. 11 in Las Vegas after the singer's impressive 2024 Super Bowl halftime performance, and they've been gushing about their love on social media ever since.
The “Caught Up” singer and Goicoechea dated for years before they got married.
They share 3-year-old daughter Sovereign Bo Raymond and 2-year-old son Sire Castrello Raymond. Usher is also a father to 16-year-old son Usher “Cinco” Raymond V and 15-year-old son Naviyd Ely Raymond, whom he shares with ex-wife Tameka Foster. In 2012, Usher's stepson named Kile Glover, Foster's oldest child, died in a watercraft accident.
Usher and Goicoechea frequently share glimpses into their relationship and their blended family on social media.
Learn more about Goicoechea and her relationship with the musician below.
She knows music — and not just his
Usher didn’t usher her into the world of music. Goicoechea got her start in the industry by working with her mother, Barbara Goicoecha, who’s the director of operations at Miami-based event and multi-media production company ACT Productions.
According to a 2015 profile in Rolling Out, that connection led the younger Goicoechea to a job opportunity with singer Ciara, and it eventually put her on the path to discovering and fostering musical acts.
She told Rolling Out, “having strong organizational skills, event planning abilities, being able to identify burgeoning talent early on while staying current and involved on the music scene and keeping my ear to the pulse is what helped me get to where I am today.”
Goicoechea worked as the director of the Rhythm & Soul department at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) from 2014 until 2016. She’s now the senior vice president of A&R at Epic Records.
How to pronounce her name
Goicochea’s mother is Italian, but she gets her last name from her Puerto Rican father. It’s pronounced "Goy-co-che-ah," according to her Instagram bio.
She’s been dating the singer-songwriter since (at least) 2019
Usher first made an appearance on Goicochea’s Instagram in 2016, when she shared a photo of herself whispering in his ear.
In the caption, she joked, “Not sure what I’m saying or who I’m speaking (to) ???? But my nails look good.” However, that wasn’t a subtle relationship announcement.
At the time, Usher was still married to his former manager, Grace Miguel. He and Miguel divorced in 2018, and it wasn’t until October 2019 that Usher and Goicochea signaled their pairing by allowing a photographer to capture a kiss they shared at the Hollywood Bowl.
They’ve built a family together
Of course, there’s no ring needed to see how close Usher and his girlfriend are. They already share the ultimate bond in the form of their two children.
The couple welcomed a daughter, Sovereign Bo, on Sept. 24, 2020 and a son, Sire Castrello, on Sept. 29, 2021.
They married on Feb. 11, 2024
Usher may have had the performance of a lifetime at the 2024 Super Bowl in Las Vegas on Feb. 11, but he ended his record-setting weekend with a quiet, much more intimate event: tying the knot with his longtime partner.
NBC News obtained a marriage license that shows the two are officially husband and wife.
Usher and Goicoechea held a small ceremony with their children after the game. He even posted photos of their special night after they exchanged vows.
In a Feb. 19 appearance on “The Breakfast Club,” the singer said they decided to have their wedding right after his show “just to put an incredible ending on this chapter of Las Vegas.”
He went on to say that he proposed in 2023 and didn’t want to wait anymore to say, “I do.”
“I didn’t want to be that guy who just, you know, continued to hold on forever to the ring,” he said.
Las Vegas just made sense for the couple amid the singer’s residency and Super Bowl performance.
“I said, ‘What if we just do a drive-thru just for our kids and our immediate family, you know, old Vegas style,’” he recalled. “How Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley did it?”
The two had the ceremony officiated by an Elvis impersonator and were surrounded by family for the occasion. Usher said they decided to keep it small so that the moment was about what was really important: “the union of two people and the love of your family.”
While this marks Goicochea's first marriage, Usher has said “I do” twice before. Before his 2015 marriage to Miguel, he was married to Foster from 2007 to 2009.
They've publicly celebrated newlywed life
Three days after the wedding, Usher shared photos from their nuptials on Instagram. In the snaps, he rocked a black-and-white suit and bow tie while Goicoechea donned an off-the-shoulder white top, pants and matching gloves.
She held a bouquet of white and red roses in one picture as they shared a kiss. In another, she wore a veil that read, “Mrs. Raymond 02. 11. 24.”
“One of them Ones ?? 2.11.24,” he captioned the slideshow.
Since then, they have attended multiple events that they turned into date nights.
He uploaded a carousel of photos of them from the NAACP Image Awards in March, where he was presented with the President’s Award. They posed for pictures on the red carpet and also took a photo with Halle Bailey and her boyfriend, DDG.
Goicoechea, who changed her name on Instagram to Jennifer Raymond, shared a few snaps from the award show on her page, as well.
“And the NAACP Image Award goes to @usher … Congratulations!!!!” the proud wife captioned the post.
On April 20, Usher was presented with a key to the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
He posted a photo of Goicoechea planting a kiss on his head as he held the key. Some of his children attended the special ceremony, too.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com