Walking the red carpet and dressed to the nines at this year’s Grammy Awards, where Jelly Roll, 41, scored the biggest and first Grammy wins of his career, Bunnie XO, 46, summed up the couple’s unlikely love story with a phrase that perfectly captures both the chaos and the triumph: a “twisted fairytale with the happiest ending.”
“We are in disbelief,” she told reporters on the Grammy carpet. “We were literally on the way here, and we were like, can you believe this? This has been the most twisted fairytale, but it’s had the happiest ending. We’re just so thankful. We’re blessed.”
That disbelief came as Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason DeFord, celebrated his first-ever Grammy win, ultimately taking home three trophies during the star-studded event. His earnings included Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “Amen” with Shaboozey and Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song for “Hard Fought Hallelujah” with Brandon Lake, all serving as a powerful moment for an artist with a tough backstory.
In fact, long before he was nabbing awards and selling out tours, Jelly Roll, a native of Antioch, Tenn., spent more than a decade in and out of jail. Addiction, poverty, and incarceration marked much of his early years. While serving time in prison, he learned he had a daughter, Bailee Ann — a turning point he often credits as the catalyst for changing everything.
Today, Jelly Roll is the picture of someone who has reshaped his life in more ways than one. He has lost more than 200 pounds, rebuilt strong relationships with his two children, daughter Bailee Ann and son Noah, and earned many major accolades. He’s also taken on a new role as a judge on the newly revamped Star Search, adding yet another glowing mark on his resume.
But behind that incredible transformation was Bunnie Xo, a woman who has always believed in him, even when he wasn’t scoring No. 1 hits at country and rock radio or bringing home the hardware.
“I think behind every man is a woman that’s pushing him,” Bunnie Xo, who shares custody of Bailee Ann with Jelly Roll, acknowledged during a separate red carpet interview, which included the “Save Me” singer. “We were talking about it in the car on the way here. He said, ‘I never saw this coming.’ And I told him, ‘I did.’ The first night I met him, I told him he was special. I meant it.”
The couple met in August 2015 when Jelly Roll performed at the Las Vegas Country Saloon—years before fame found him. At the time, he was living out of a van. Bunnie Xo has said she was immediately drawn to him, recalling that she fell in love with “the saddest eyes in the room.”
The two got engaged in 2016 during a Deftones concert in Las Vegas, which led to their Sin City wedding later that evening. Seven years later, the couple returned to the same Las Vegas wedding chapel where they first tied the knot to renew their vows during an intimate ceremony. Nearly a decade later, the pair can admit that, though the fairytale wasn’t perfect, it was real. And for them, that made the ending even sweeter.
Bunnie Xo, a high school dropout who built her career from the ground up, has become a success story in her own right. She hosts the highly popular Dumb Blonde Podcast, where she speaks openly about trauma, healing, and growth, as well as interviews some of the most sought-after people in the world, such as Dolly Parton and Sharon Osbourne, and now she’s preparing to release her candid memoir, Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic, set for publication on February 17, 2026.
