Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo spent more than a year publicly chronicling their fertility journey before their nearly 10-year marriage came to a shocking and public end.
The couple, who married in 2016, revealed in June 2024 that they were pursuing IVF with the assistance of a surrogate in an effort to expand their family. Nearly two years later, Jelly Roll filed for divorce in May 2026, per court documents obtained by Us Weekly.
The filing listed the date of separation as May 9, 2026 and cited “irreconcileable differences,” as the reason for the split, claiming the “parties are unable to live together successfully as Husband and Wife.”
Jelly Roll and Bunnie met in 2015 and got married in August 2016, later renewing their vows in 2023. (Jelly Roll also shares two children — Bailee Ann and Noah Buddy — from previous relationships.)
Look back at Jelly Roll and Bunnie’s candid quotes about their fertility journey:
Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo Announced IVF Plans
Jelly Roll first shared the couple’s family-expansion plans during a June 2024 episode of the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast.
“My wife and I are talking about having a baby, and it really made me realize that at almost 40, I was like, it means I got to live to at least 60. I got to see this kid into college,” Jelly Roll said, referencing the 300 pounds he had lost since late 2022.
Shortly after the episode aired, Bunnie addressed the announcement herself.
“Papabear dropped a surprise on this pod today. We had planned on doing this privately, but decided our IVF journey needed to be shared because we’ve always been so open,” she wrote. “And w/all odds stacked against us, it’s always been hard & we have only just begun.”
Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo Planned to Use a Surrogate
On a July 2024 episode of her “Dumb Blonde” podcast, Bunnie opened up about why she would not carry the baby herself.
“This journey with IVF, we sat down a couple months ago,” she said at the time. “And I was just like, I feel like I’ve accomplished so much in my life. And the only thing that’s left is to raise a baby and garden.”
She continued, “J was like … ‘I would love to have a baby with you.’ And that was not the response that I thought he would say.”
Bunnie explained that she decided to use a gestational career because of mental health concerns and a history of pregnancy loss.
“I am not mentally well enough to let my hormones get out of whack. … I have gotten to a place where I’m even-keeled. My anxiety is finally good,” she noted. “There is nothing wrong with having a surrogate. I would have trouble carrying a baby. I have lost many babies, you know. … My schedule does not allow for me to … have another miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy.”
At the time, the then-couple said they did not plan on implanting embryos until February 2025.
Bunnie Xo and Jelly Roll Gave Updates Throughout 2025
In her memoir Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic, released in February 2025, Bunnie wrote about having an abortion at 16 and two life-saving abortions to treat ectopic pregnancies.
“J and I have a surrogate, the sweetest woman ever, and soon I’ll be starting my IVF stims,” she wrote.
One month earlier, Bunnie told People that IVF was “one of the hardest things” she’s been through.
“It’s been rough,” she told the outlet. “I know that God has a plan and he’s going to make it work.”
Jelly Roll echoed the sentiment during a of Netflix’s Star Search, telling an 8-year-old contestant, in January 2025, “Me and my wife have baby fever, and you just tripled that tonight.”
By June 2025, Bunnie shared on Instagram that the couple had received positive news.
“When you just got the call you’ve been waiting on for five months since this IVF journey started. All the tears, the hopelessness & the struggle, God finally said ‘Here,’” she wrote, clarifying she was not pregnant, but noted the call was a “huge win.”
Bunnie later reflected on the process during a November 2025 episode of her podcast.
“It is tough, but at the same time it’s like, you just put it in God’s hands. If it’s meant to be it’s meant to be,” she said. “And if not, we can always adopt. I’m totally open to adoption too and so is my husband.”
Raising Jelly Roll’s Daughter Helped Bunnie Xo Realize She Could be a Mom
Bunnie, who had helped Jelly Roll raise his daughter upon the pair’s marriage, eventually realized that she could conquer motherhood.
“I just want women to know it doesn’t matter what age you are when you’re ready to be a mom, be a mom and when you’re able to be a mom, be the best mom that you can be,” she exclusively told Us Weekly in January 2026. “God, you know, gave me Bailee to do a run-through to make sure because my biggest fear was that I was always going to inflict trauma on my child like my parents did to me.”
Bunnie continued, “I never wanted to have kids, and raising Bailee has really showed me that, ‘Hey, maybe I actually can do this,’” Bunnie told Us. “Granted, you know, everybody gets some sort of trauma in their life, whether it’s on purpose or not, but I think I might be able to crush this mom role, and to be able to do it with my husband is going to be really amazing.”
This story was compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.usmagazine.com ’
