Jelly Roll is getting candid about his daughter’s mother.
The “Son Of A Sinner” singer is not shy about talking about his past and the mistakes he’s made along the road to where he is now. His transparency about this past is part of the reason fans resonate with his music so deeply. They know he has lived many of the lyrics he sings each night on stage.
However, just because Jelly Roll has welcomed his fans into his personal life, letting them learn about his past and what he hopes to accomplish in the present, does not mean every member of his family feels the same way. Jelly Roll and his wife, Bunnie Xo, share a lot of their lives online, and sometimes their daughter, Bailee Ann, will appear in social media videos with Bunnie and Jelly.
However, Jelly’s son is not as much in the public eye. Although Jelly and Bunnie made it very clear that he’s part of their family, given that his mother is still involved in his life, they try to respect her privacy and let him choose when he wants to appear in content, given his young age as well.
However, regardless of when Jelly’s children choose to show their face or make their presence known, they are children, and sometimes they don’t want their lives out on the internet like Jelly and Bunnie have chosen to do with theirs. Jelly Roll recently touched on this topic surrounding Bailee Ann’s mother on a recent episode of The Pivot Podcast.
“I’m passionate about broken people, in all forms. But you know, my child’s mother has struggled with drug addiction, since my daughter’s been born, pretty much. I’ve seen the effect that it had on her. Like I’ve got a 16-year-old, almost 17-year-old upstairs, that it’s truly affected her life.
Like it’s really hurt her, Channing.
The addict is not the victim in that situation. The family is. You know what I mean? Like the addict is too, obviously like they are a victim of the disease. But seeing that real impact it had…”
Jelly then goes on to say that he no longer has a phone, and the only way people can contact him is through a phone number or email linked to his laptop. The other day, he got a message from his wife about his daughter’s mother getting in trouble with the law again.
“I think my wife hit me, or somebody did, and they said, ‘Hey man, call and check on the kid later.’ And they sent a link, and it was a news article that her mother had, this is brand new, this was like breaking news, a little bit. This happened like four or five days ago.
Her mother had went back to jail. Had been caught with like meth or something, and I guess I’ve been so… and that’s what I told my wife like I’ve invited the world into our living room, so we’ve just got to accept what comes with that. Like this is my fault more than anybody’s, you know?”
With Jelly’s statement about letting folks into their lives, it seems as though this moment made him somewhat regret it, seeing the trauma his daughter has to go through of seeing her mother’s name in news headlines. If he were not Jelly Roll, this would just be another woman arrested. However, news platforms can make the connection that this is Bailee Ann’s mother and blast a story about how “Jelly Roll’s baby momma was arrested.”
Jelly Roll shared how much it hurt him seeing how much his daughter was broken after seeing this news.
“Man, it broke my daughter’s heart. You know what I mean, this is a 16/17 year old that knows her mother’s a drug addict. But like her having to see the mugshot of her mother just ate up with meth on her face. You know what I mean? It’s like all that…getting emotional.
Watching her go through that all over again…watched her go through it all over again was like, ‘Ah man.’ I forgot because like I’m 40 and I’ve done a lot of therapy and I’ve done a lot of work and I’ve got a relationship with God. It hurt me, but I just got to pray about it and kind of move on, and I was like, oh no, she’s 16, she don’t have any of those tools. She’s still gaining those tools. This is like…this hurts her.”
Hearing Jelly Roll talk about this breaks your heart because you can see that he feels guilty in this moment for letting the public into his life and sharing parts of his kids’ lives with the internet. Although it was done with good intentions, living through challenging moments like this, where he can see the pain his child is in, and seeing headlines about her mother, is heartbreaking.
Although Bailee Ann’s mother does not have custody of her, as a child, you always see your parents as your heroes, and so it’s painful for her to see her mother continue to spiral. Thankfully, Bailee Ann has an incredible bonus mom, and you can tell that Bunnie Xo loves her fully as her own.
Jelly is a great father for being there for his daughter during a time like this, and with his guidance, she will, too, gain the tools to help her cope with pain in situations like this. No family is perfect, but it’s hard when your family drama is aired online.
Our heart goes out to you, Bailee Ann. As usual, kudos to Jelly Roll for keeping the conversation about the imperfect parts of his life transparent.
Check out the whole interview while you’re here.
