View gallery
Jelly Roll and his wife Bunnie XO have been happily married since 2016, long before he released his first album on a major record label in 2021. In the singer’s new documentary, Jelly Roll: Save Me, the two opened up about their relationship, including the public’s perception that Bunnie only married Jelly Roll for his money and fame. “When I met him, I was just like, ‘Who the f*** is this dude?’” she recalled. “He was nobody. He was playing to a room of 30 people. It’s always like, ‘She’s a gold digger,’ and I’m like…that’s not the case.”
Bunnie said that when she first met Jelly Roll, he would call her and ask her for things that he needed for his young daughter, Bailee, who was born in 2008. “I didn’t mind it,” she admitted. “That’s the hold J had on me.” Jelly Roll was in prison when Bailee was born, but when she was 7, he got full custody of her amidst her mother’s struggle with drug addiction.
In the doc, Jelly Roll explained why he and Bunnie are able to relate to each other and connect on such a deep level. “[She’s] always been in the sex worker industry, that’s the culture in Vegas,” he said. “I just related to that so much. I understood how much an environment can affect you and how you see things. Bunnie was who she was. I was who I was. It was two people looking to run wild together. I think that’s what attracted me to Bunnie.”
The start of the pair’s relationship was fueled by drug use, and they wasted no time getting married after their first meeting. “We stumbled into a courthouse blackout drunk and got married,” the 38-year-old dished. “I’ll probably still get blackout drunk once a year for the rest of my life because you never know what could happen!”
Bunnie admitted that the pair’s relationship was “extremely toxic” at first due to their partying. However, Jelly Roll had previously made a promise to himself that he would be there for his daughter, and getting custody of Bailee helped them get on a straighter path. Bunnie said she hasn’t taken a pill since Bailee moved in with her and her husband, while Jelly Roll has given up hard drugs, although he admittedly still smokes marijuana and drinks alcohol.
Now that Jelly Roll’s career has taken off, he and Bunnie have been thrust into the spotlight. They walked their first red carpet at the CMA Awards in Nov. 2022, which was documented in the movie. “I’m a west coast girl, so being out here in Nashville is a culture shock,” Bunnie admitted. “I’m like, ‘Do I have to start wearing rhinestones and cowboy boots and bellbottoms and s***? I don’t even know. We’re like the Addams Family of the country era. We don’t belong here, but we’re here. We don’t fit in, for sure. But country needs people to shake some s*** up.”
Click to Subscribe to Get Our Free HollywoodLife Daily Newsletter to get the hottest celeb news.