Until the wheels fall off.
Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo weathered many storms in their nearly decade-long marriage before calling it quits in May 2026.
The country singer, born Jason Bradley DeFord, was already the father of two children from previous relationships — daughter Bailee and son Noah — when he met the then-escort in 2015.
While the Grammy winner was living out of his van at the time, his career took off a few years into their marriage.
He promised his partner she “one day … wouldn’t have to” make ends meet with an OnlyFans account, and she retired from the platform in 2023.
During one of their final public appearances together at the 2026 Grammys, Jelly Roll thanked his wife in a speech on stage, gushing, “I would have never changed my life without you. I’d have ended up dead or in jail. I’d have killed myself if it wasn’t for you and Jesus.”
Page Six is breaking down the couple’s unconventional romance — and their sudden split — below.
2015: Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo meet
Bunnie Xo watched her future husband open for the Moonshine Bandits in 2015 at Las Vegas’ Country Saloon concert and was so “instantly drawn to him” — despite both of them being in other relationships.
“When I first met J, he had the saddest eyes in the room,” she recalled in her Februaary 2026 “Stripped Down” memoir of chatting backstage. “I was just like, ‘Oh, this is a project. I love a good project.’ … And then when he was a d–k, I was like, ‘Oh, this is even better. … ‘I’ve got my hands full with this guy.’
“He didn’t bow to me,” she continued. “That’s what I appreciated about him.”
Bunnie Xo noted on a 2023 “Bussin’ With the Boys” episode that “her soul was like, ‘Therre you are,’ even though they aren’t each other’s types.
When Jelly Roll discussed their meet-cute on “Taste of Country Nights” in June 2022, he noted, “I love it when [people] call her a gold digger … because when I met her, I was homeless living out of a ’96 conversion van.”
2016: Their friendship takes a romantic turn
The duo were “smitten” when they reconnected in October 2015 — and Bunnie Xo had a friend give Jelly Roll her number when her then-boyfriend went to prison, she said during the 2023 podcast episode.
They were friends at first, with Bunnie Xo giving the songwriter advice as he sought custody of his eldest child.
The pair’s dynamic took a romantic turn in 2016, when they slept together that July.
August 2016: Their whirlwind wedding
Bunnie Xo shared her five-year plan with Jelly Roll during their initial hookup — and they started completing it one month later with an August 2016 Sin City wedding.
The rapper proposed on stage the evening of their wedding, and they rushed to the Stained Glass Wedding Chapel.
The bride later revealed via TikTok that they were “blackout drunk” at the time of the nuptials.
2018: They break up over Jelly Roll’s betrayal
Jelly Roll confessed in October 2025 that he had an affair two years into his and Bunnie Xo’s marriage — a moment he called “one of [his] worst moments” on the “Human School” podcast.
He claimed to have been influenced by “s–tty” friends before becoming sober, remembering “hanging around a bunch of people that were cheating on their wives.”
As Bunnie Xo elaborated further in her book the following year, she told readers about contemplating suicide during the “intense” pain.
Noting that they had been having marital issues ahead of the infidelity, the “Dumb Blonde” podcast host described talking to Jelly Roll’s fling after he “squandered” his chance to tell the truth.
They ultimately reconciled — but she noted, “I’m not going to pretend that we just went back to normal. We absolutely did not. … It would take years for me to put the affair aside. It would take years to actually feel like this man loved me—that I wasn’t disposable.”
Jelly Roll claimed during his 2025 confession that their “repair [had] been special” and they were stronger than [they] could have ever been.”
November 2022: Red carpet debut
The couple made their red carpet debut in November 2022 at the CMA Awards.
Jelly Roll, whose career blew up two years prior when “Save Me” went viral, gushed about his wife to reporters.
“My wife is gonna look like a human Barbie doll,” he raved at the time. “She has got the most beautiful see-through pink floral dress I’ve ever seen. It’s the sexiest thing.”
August 2023: Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo renew their vows
In August 2023, Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo renewed their vows at the same place they walked down the aisle seven years before.
The hitmaker told People that instead of getting the “seven-year itch,” they wanted to “double down” on their commitment.
Additionally, he quipped, “There was always a discrepancy with our anniversary, because she thought it was on one day. I thought it was on another day. Neither one of us knew.”
June 2024: The couple go public with their fertility struggles
Bunnie Xo made headlines for sharing her IVF journey via Instagram in June 2024.
“We have been … exploring all our options to add to our family,” she wrote at the time. “J & I are SO excited & scared all at the same time. We genuinely never thought we’d want to add to our family but something changed this year & we both just want a piece of us together to add to our already perfect family with Bailee & Noah.”
The following year, she said on her podcast that the duo were also looking into surrogacy and adoption.
“If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be,” Bunnie Xo told listeners.
2025-2026: Sharing their sex life challenges
Jelly Roll kicked off a drastic weight loss transformation in 2022 and lost more than 200 pounds.
While speaking about his slimdown to Joe Rogan in December 2025, he admitted his previous sex life with Bunnie Xo had been “horrible” because he was “so big.”
The following month, Jelly Roll praised his partner as a “smokeshow” he was “struggling” to “get it up” for prior to losing weight, telling Men’s Health that his recent testerone replacement therapy had him “chasing [Bunnie Xo] around the house.”
Bunnie Xo, for her part, confirmed to Us Weekly that that their intimacy had suffered “mountains and valleys” due to Jelly Roll’s size.
She clarified two months later in a Playboy interview that their bedroom activity had “slowed down” because “big body changes mess with your head and hormones” — but referred to that as “an adjustment period, not a permanent shift.”
February 2026: Bunnie Xo spills all in memoir
When Bunnie Xo bared all on the high-profile relationship in her February 2026 memoir, Jelly Roll admitted to People that the tell-all was a “rough” read as they had to “go through … a lot of pain” again.
In the book, Bunnie Xo revealed their relationship had not always been monogamous.
“If a girl wanted to come home with us, we more than likely wouldn’t turn her down,” she told readers. “J has always told me that I can sleep with other men if I want to.
“We both live by the motto that we aren’t each other’s possessions and consider our relationship to be free, not open,” Bunnie XO added.
May 2026: They secretly break up — and the cryptic social media activity begins
Before news broke of Jelly Roll filing for divorce, Bunnie Xo posted a slew of cryptic social media posts in May 2026.
In one upload, she compared her exes to trash cans — and in another, she praised her “woman’s intuition.”
Bunnie Xo also told her followers “wild hearts can’t be broken.”
As for the “Halfway to Hell” singer, he posted sans wedding ring on multiple occasions — and ditched the band at the 2026 CMA Fest.
June 2026: Jelly Roll’s divorce filing makes headlines
On June 15, 2026, Page Six confirmed Jelly Roll had filed for divorce from Bunnie Xo in Tennessee.
He did so on May 18, listing their date of separation as May 9 and citing “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for their breakup, according to court documents we obtained.
While he and Bunnie Xo have yet to speak out on the split, the latter did post about getting “her sparkle back” the day news spread.
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