Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo are getting a divorce — and the story behind it is not the one the internet wants you to believe. After nearly 10 years of marriage, the country star filed paperwork in Tennessee, setting off a wave of speculation, rumors, and a whole lot of noise online.
But the couple themselves are telling a very different story. One that’s less tabloid scandal and more two best friends quietly deciding to change what their relationship looks like.
Here’s everything we know.
When Did Jelly Roll File for Divorce?
Jelly Roll — whose real name is Jason DeFord — filed for divorce from Bunnie Xo, real name Alisa DeFord, on May 18 in Williamson County, Tennessee. The filing lists their date of separation as May 9 and cites irreconcilable differences. The news was first reported by TMZ in mid-June.
The timing stunned fans. The couple had appeared happy and affectionate at the 2026 Grammys back in February, and just months earlier had been openly talking about expanding their family.
“Nobody Cheated on Nobody”
As soon as the news broke, cheating rumors flooded social media. Jelly Roll shut them down fast.
During a stop on his Little Ass Shed Tour in Saratoga Springs, New York, he paused the show to address the speculation directly — saying it would be the only time he’d ever speak on it publicly. He told the crowd the internet was lying, that he and Bunnie are best friends, that they’d talked on the phone that very day, and that nobody cheated on anybody.
He closed it out with a message straight to her: thanking Bunnie for the past 10 years and looking forward to the next 10 years of friendship. Then he got back to the show.
The Real Reason Behind the Split
According to Bunnie, the divorce traces back to something far more human than scandal: the toll of a long, painful IVF journey.
On her Dumb Blonde podcast, Bunnie got candid about how hard the past year and a half had been. She said she became a shell of herself while going through round after round of IVF, fighting to produce enough eggs to have a baby with her husband.
She also explained that Jelly Roll had to go on hormones and medication of his own during the process — which, in her words, made him difficult to be around. The strain of it all, on both of them, changed the relationship.
They’re Still Having a Baby Together
Here’s the twist nobody saw coming: despite the divorce, Bunnie says she and Jelly Roll still plan to have a baby together.
The two had already selected a surrogate and were hoping to welcome twins. Bunnie made it clear on her podcast that the bond between them hasn’t broken — calling Jelly Roll her best friend and saying she still loves him. As she put it, they’ve always been the most unconventional couple anyone’s ever seen, and that’s not changing now.
A Love Story That Started in Las Vegas
Jelly Roll and Bunnie met in 2015 and married at a Las Vegas chapel in August 2016, before his career exploded. Throughout his rise, he repeatedly credited Bunnie as the anchor who supported him — emotionally and financially — through his hardest years.
Together they’ve raised Jelly Roll’s two children from previous relationships, daughter Bailee Ann, 18, and son Noah, 9. Bunnie has long been open about her pride in being a stepmom. When the divorce news hit, Bailee Ann spoke out on TikTok, calling the public’s obsession with a private family matter disgusting.
The couple even renewed their vows at the same chapel seven years after their wedding — a reminder of just how far they’d come together.
The Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo divorce isn’t the messy celebrity blowup the rumor mill wanted. By both of their accounts, it’s two people who’ve decided their relationship works better as a friendship — while still building a family, still showing up for each other, and still calling one another a best friend.
As messy as divorce usually is, this one is shaping up to be one of the most unusual, and weirdly heartfelt, splits in country music.
