The-Dream Optimistic About Love, Still Friends with Christina Milian

The-Dream's marriage to Christina Milian crashed and burned in a matter of three months, much of which was in full view of the public eye. A month after they finalized their divorce, Terius Nash reflects on his marriage and some of the things that went wrong in it.

The 34-year-old tunesmith have no regrets about his failed marriage, but still believes that he will one day find his true love. "I'm definitely optimistic [about love]," he tells Boombox. "I'm a hopeless romantic, of course. The people in relationships are the reason why relationships don't work; it isn't the idea of it. The idea of it is an idea, which means that it takes a certain type of way of thinking in order to make it work. Personally, for me to grow up [in] a male-dominated home with a guy in it, which was my grandfather, it's probably not good for me to be with a woman that hasn't had a father figure around, because it's just hard to get that respect, period. You can't respect something that you never had."

The-Dream insists that he and his ex-wife Milian are cordial to each other. After all, the two have a beautiful daughter together named Violet. "We're friends," he says, adding that the stress of his losing his mother may have also caused the dissolution of their marriage.

"I went through it in my life, and I've lost [a] certain thing that other people at my age haven't lost yet, [like my] mother," he explains. "Automatically, my feeling about life is going to be [different]. We can argue the point, but the truth is I'm going to feel a certain way because of my mom. I feel a certain way about making sure I appreciate certain things in people because nobody lives forever."

"If I make it to 35 next year, I would have lived longer than my mom, so these are things that go through my mind constantly, which are things that you may have not started to think about unless you already went through it. It's certain things in my life that I've had to grow an appreciation for really quick," Nash said. "I have a song on my album that says, 'I don't care how you feel, because I can pat myself on the back.' That's not me patting myself on the back. It's my parents because they have instilled in me [things] that make me feel that way. I'm here because of what I've already been through."

In the meantime, you can hear The-Dream's handiwork on Rihanna's latest LP 'Talk That Talk' (he co-wrote 'Birthday Cake'). The hit-maker is also teaming up with Big Sean on a secret film project.