Bunnie Xo, Jelly Roll and Bailee Ann.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording AcademyHe may have had an uncontroversial start to fatherhood, but Jellyroll has always prioritized his family.
The country singer gave birth to his first child, daughter Bailee Ann, with his ex-girlfriend Felicia in 2008. At the time, Jelly (real name Jason DeFord) was serving a prison sentence for a drug trafficking conviction.
“During the lockdown, a guard knocked on my cell door in the afternoon. He said: ‘You had a child today,'” he said billboard in June 2023. “I’ve never had anything in my life that pushed me in that moment to know that I have to do something different. That’s what I have to figure out now.”
After learning of Bailee’s arrival, Jelly vowed that he would be there for his daughter. Eight years later, the musician welcomed son Noah Buddy with ex Melisa.
That same month he became a father to Noah and Jelly married his wife Bunny Xo. Although the couple doesn’t have any children together, Jelly Bunnie credits the reason he was able to be a better father.
“You’re talking about a woman who came in and took a child that was soon to be born and a child that (we) would soon have sole custody of,” he told Billboard. “Without her, I would never have gotten custody of my daughter. I wouldn’t have had the stability or the money.”
In June 2026, it was revealed that Jelly had quietly filed for divorce from Bunnie after nearly ten years of marriage.
Keep scrolling to meet Jelly’s family:
Bunny Xo
Jelly and Bunnie met in 2015 at one of the musician’s shows in Las Vegas. The following year, the couple escaped to the city’s famous Little White Wedding Chapel.
“It takes a special kind of woman to raise a child that is not her child and still treat the child as if she were. Bunnie is that special woman, outside of social media, outside of the podcast and all the business ventures she does and helps me with, Bunnie is a beautiful soul,” Jelly wrote via Facebook alongside a photo of his wife with his daughter in May 2020. “She is kind, patient and caring. Watching her relationship with Bailee evolve into this beautiful mother-daughter bond over the years has been nothing short of magical.”
In May 2026, Jelly quietly filed divorce papers in Tennessee. Us weekly confirmed the following month. He gave the date of separation as May 9, 2026 and cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the separation.
Us I’ve reached out to Jelly and Bunnie’s reps for comment.
Bailee Ann
In 2017, Jelly and Bunnie were granted custody of Bailee while her mother struggled with drug addiction. During an appearance in February 2024 with her stepmother “Stupid blonde” On the podcast, Bailee talked about her struggles while living with her mother.
“I still smoked a lot and did all sorts of things, but I stopped drinking coke because my mother wasn’t there,” the teenager recalled, while Bunnie noted that her stepdaughter didn’t have access to harder drugs while her mother was away. “Why should I? I had no access, no need.”
During an appearance at Stagecoach in April 2024, Jelly brought his daughter on stage for her birthday.
“I don’t want to put her on blast, but my little girl is 15 years old and in about 10 days she’ll be 16,” he told the audience at the music festival. “I see some of you little cowboys smiling, stop it. I’m looking at you. I see you.”
Noah buddy
Jelly announced his son’s arrival in August 2016. “God bless this child to be everything I am not! Noah Buddy DeFord!” he wrote about Facebook at the time. “I pray that neither he nor Bailee ever have to pay for their father’s sins. I will post more pictures tomorrow.”
Seven years later, Noah made his debut on his stepmother’s social media page. (Bunnie later shared that she had received permission from Noah’s mother to put the little one in front of the camera.)
“My name is Noah and my favorite color is red,” he said in a July 2023 interview TikTok video.
