Not ready to speak on it – yet.
It’s been just under a month since Jelly Roll filed for divorce from his wife Bunnie Xo after 10 years of marriage, though we just learned about the bombshell yesterday when the complaint was first reported by TMZ.
Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason DeFord, filed for divorce from his wife Bunnie Xo, whose real name is Alisa DeFord, back on May 18 in Williamson County Chancery Court, just outside of Nashville.
Neither of the two have publicly addressed the separation, though TMZ reported that it was a “mutual decision” and a “private family matter.”
Whiskey Riff obtained a copy of the divorce complaint that was filed by the “Save Me” singer, which reveals that the couple separated on May 9, a week and a half before the request for a divorce was filed. He cites “irreconcilable differences” as the grounds for the divorce, which in Tennessee is a no-fault grounds for divorce that means that the parties agree on the terms of the separation.
According to the complaint:
“The Husband would respectfully show unto the Court that these parties are unable to live together successfully as Husband and Wife. Plaintiff charges that the parties have suffered irreconcilable differences as would entitle either of them to a divorce.”
Now, that language is largely statutory, meaning it’s just what they have to say in order to meet the legal requirements for an irreconcilable differences divorce, and may make the situation sound worse than it really is.
But regardless, Jelly Roll’s daughter Bailee Ann is making clear that she doesn’t appreciate how invested everyone is in the divorce since the news became public.
In a story posted to her TikTok, the 18-year old Bailee made clear that the family plans to stay quiet on the situation – at least for now:
“I am disgusted at how invested everyone is in a very clearly private family matter. It’s fkn crazy.
Go on somewhere yall. Worry bout your house – not mine. I’m not speaking on it – yet.”
Obviously you can’t blame her for not wanting to address it during what’s no doubt a difficult time for her and everyone else in their family. But it’s no doubt a departure from how open the couple have been on their relationship – including their struggles – during their time together.
Jelly and Bunnie were married back in 2016 before renewing their vows in 2023, and have been incredibly transparent about their relationship, including their struggles along the way. As Bunnie has discussed in the past, the two separated not long after getting married when she discovered that Jelly Roll was having an affair with an ex of his:
“We got married in 2016. The affair was started with an ex in 2017, and then I think I found out about it early on in 2018.”
During an appearance last year on the Human School Podcast with Miles Adcox, Jelly Roll also opened up on the affair, saying that it led him to question whether he would ever be able to clean up his act:
“I don’t talk about this publicly at all, but one of the worst moments of my adulthood was when I had an affair on my wife. Because it was the first time that I was like, ‘I really can’t get this right at all.’
Like, I know I’m in love with this woman. It was just such a – like it just really, really, really blew me back.”
If you’re not familiar with Bunnie, she’s actually got a pretty incredible story herself. The host of the Dumb Blonde Podcast who’s built up a massive following of her own, she actually started out as a high-end escort in Las Vegas, which is what she was doing when her and Jelly Roll first met.
During an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast a while back, Jelly Roll discussed being homeless when he first met his wife:
“My wife grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada. My wife was a high-end escort her whole life. That’s what she did when I met her.
I was broke. I was living in a 1996 van. Literally. Didn’t have a house. And this woman has like two condos and a few sports cars. She’s f–king BALLING.”
More recently, the couple had been open about their struggles trying to conceive a child through IVF, with hopes of conceiving twins through a surrogate:
“Now that we’re finally stable financially and somewhat emotionally after all the healing we’ve done over this decade together, we’re talking about the future—including growing our family. J and I have a surrogate, the sweetest woman ever, and soon I’ll be starting my IVF stims.”
And last fall, she even clapped back at trolls who questioned why she hadn’t been seen publicly with her husband:
“Somebody said the other day, they’re like, ‘They used to always be together. Now you never see them together. I’m like, do you guys not know for the past six months I’ve been trying to make a baby? Like, my husband has to work to f***ing bring home the bacon.
Luckily, I have the luxury of being able to work from home. So he doesn’t. He has to make appearances. But I literally have been on IVF meds for f***ing six months and going through heartbreak and f***ing so much s***.”
Neither Jelly Roll nor Bunnie have commented on the divorce filing, so we don’t know what happened to lead to the separation. Jelly Roll is currently on the road with Post Malone for his Big Ass Stadium Tour while also headlining his own Little Ass Shed Tour. But before news broke of the divorce, Bunnie shared a video of herself singing along to Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me.”
