The Dirt
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ByAmanda Ray Byerly/
He's gotta thing for the wildones!Country singer Jelly Roll (born Jason Bradley DeFord) and his wife Bunnie XO are often hailed by their fans and stans for being the epitome of relationship goals. But make no mistake — their union is also peppered with its fair share of strange quirks. "It's a white trash love story," Jelly Roll once jokedabout the couple's love affair during an appearance on the "King and the Sting and the Wing" podcast. As for Bunnie, it appears she would also agree that their love story is anything but conventional. "I'm not J's type, and he's not my type,"she revealed to host LeeAnn Kreischer on the"Wife of the Party" podcast.
Alas, those eccentricities are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Jelly Roll and Bunnie's bizarre marriage. Keep reading to learn all of the strange things about their famous, albeit somewhat odd, matrimony.
Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo met while she was dating someone else
The story goes that Jelly Roll met his future wife in 2015 while performing in Las Vegas. There was just one little problem:Bunnie Xo was in the midst of a volatile, abusive relationship at the time. Eventually, however, Bunnie's then-boyfriend went to prison, and she and Jelly Roll reconnected in 2016. "You know we just started off being friends,"she explainedon the "Wife of the Party" podcast.
According to Jelly Roll, however, it was Bunnie who made the first move. "I'm not going to act like I shot my shot. She kind of shot hers," he confessed on the"King and the Sting and the Wing"podcast. But that didn't mean Jelly Roll didn't already have a plan up his sleeve to see her again. He told her he was planning a trip to Sin City to shoot some content for a video. She offered to host him at her place while he was in Sin City, and the rest is simply history! "She's like, 'Yeah, come on.' I was like, 'Oh well, I live in my van, so I'll leave now.'"
Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo dove headfirst into marriage
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Just like the whirlwind start to their romance, Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo'sjourney down the aisle was fast and furious. Although the couple first met in July 2015, they didn't officially become an item until 2016. But after that, the couple wasted no time and immediately bet on forever together. "It's wild. We got together in July of 2016, got married in August of 2016," Bunnie told podcast host LeeAnn Kreischer during an episode of the "Wife of the Party" podcast.
Bunnie is adamant, however, that the couple's newlywed phase was not without its growing pains. "I just think when you know, you know. But the thing is, when you get married that early, you also have to learn each other,"she cautioned her listeners during the April 15, 2020 episode of her "Dumb Blonde" podcast. "The first f***ing couple years are gonna be a rodeo. Hang on!" she advised.
Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo don't know their actual wedding date
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Many spouses have been guilty of not remembering their wedding anniversary. As for Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo? They don't even know when their actual wedding anniversary is. According to Jelly Roll, he asked Bunnie to marry him while on stage at a Yelawolf and Deftones concert in Las Vegas while they were both admittedly "on a bender." Bunny said yes, and the couple immediately got off the stage and found the nearest chapel. "Because we got married at one o'clock in the morning, they let us pick our anniversary. So we don't really know what day we got married on," Jelly Roll confessed during an episode of "The Bobby Bones Show." He added, "Our anniversary is somewhere between August 30 and September 1."
The couple eventually solved their anniversary date dilemma by opting to renew their vows in — you guessed it — Las Vegas seven years later, on September 1, 2023. "It is officially — I think — September 1. And September 1 felt right because we thought it was between the 30th and 31st, so I said, 'Well, now we can just both be wrong and just set it on the first.' Even money that way," Jelly Roll later told People about their decision. It's also probably not hard to remember, right, Jelly?!
Jelly Roll had an affair early in the marriage
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Sadly, it wasn't just the newlywed phase that wreaked havoc on Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo's marriage. During an appearance on "The Wife of the Party" podcast, Bunnie revealed that Jelly Roll had an extramarital affair for over a year, shortly after the couple got married."Wegot married in 2016. The affair was started with an ex in 2017, and then I think I found out about it early on in 2018,"she recounted. According to Bunnie, she immediately packed her bags and headed back to Las Vegas once she found out. Fortunately, the separation was short, and she and Jelly Roll were able to work past the infidelity as a couple. "It happened for a reason and I'm so thankful that it did because it just made us the best of friends," Bunnie explained.
Since then, it appears all is well in the DeFord household. In May 2024, Bunnie took to social media to relish just how far the couple had come. "Who knew us breaking up in 2018, me moving back to Vegas & you coming to get me back – would have put us on this wild journey called life," Bunnie penned over a TikTok video featuring the couple.
Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo have an open marriage
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Perhaps the strangest aspect of Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo's marriage, however, is that they keep it wide, wide open –and we're not just talking about it in terms of open dialogue and communication. "We allow each other to be who we want to be," Bunnie explained during an episode of her "Dumb Blonde" podcast in April 2020. "If I want to sleep with another guy, I can go sleep with another guy. Like, that's not a problem."
As for Jelly Roll, it appears he's also A-okay with the couple's open-door policy. In fact, he's even said that his wife's willingness to invite other individuals into the bedroom is one of his favorite parts about touring."The 'Addiction Kills' tour, in particular. Oh, man," he gushed to 247HH. "Lansing, Michigan she brought like three women on the bus, and that's great. She's done that more than three or four times, which isn't a crazy thing at that point," he maintained. Well, alrighty then.
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