Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo were eager to expand their family through IVF before calling it quits.
“It is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through,” the “Dumb Blonde” podcast host, 46, said about her experience with in vitro fertilization (IVF) in a January interview with People, just four months before the country crooner, 41, filed for divorce after nearly 10 years of marriage.
“It’s been rough,” she added at the time. “I know that God has a plan and he’s going to make it work. I really do. I have no doubt in my mind.”
The couple met in 2015 and tied the knot in August 2016, splitting briefly in 2018 before renewing their vows in 2023.
Bunnie reflected on her past during the interview, further noting, “I genuinely think that having those abortions when I was younger, the journey that I’m going on now with IVF, God’s putting me through this again so that I can be a voice for those women who are going through this process.”
Bunnie wrote about having an abortion at 16 years old in addition to the two life-saving abortions she had to treat two ectopic pregnancies in her memoir, Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic, which was released in February.
The TikTok star elaborated about her hopes to become a mother one day, revealing that she and Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason DeFord, were praying to welcome twins.
“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,” she penned in one chapter. “J and I have a surrogate, the sweetest woman ever, and soon I’ll be starting my IVF stims.”
IVF stims, also known as controlled ovarian stimulation, involves daily hormone injections with hopes of getting multiple mature eggs in one cycle instead of a single egg produced monthly.
Bunnie and Jelly Roll appeared to be in a good place at the time as she shared, “I’ve waited this long to have kids with someone I knew would be a great father — and to be able to make sure they have the best life.” (The “Wild Ones” hitmaker is dad to Bailee Ann, 17, and Noah Buddy, 9, from previous relationships.)
It seems their relationship has since unraveled as Jelly Roll filed for divorce on May 18, per court docs obtained by Us Weekly, which listed the former couple’s date of separation as May 9.
They split due to “irreconcileable differences” as the “parties are unable to live together successfully as Husband and Wife.” In his filing, Jelly Roll proposed that the pair have “an equitable division of the parties’ assets” post-split.
