From IVF Hope to Heartbreak: Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo's Split

Sometimes the hardest battles aren’t the ones you fight alone—they’re the ones you fight alongside someone you thought had your back. Bunnie Xo learned that lesson the hard way when she and country star Jelly Roll ended their nearly decade-long marriage just months after opening up about their emotionally grueling IVF journey.

Back in January, the“Dumb Blonde”podcast host was candid about the toll of in vitro fertilization. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through, she told People magazine, describing the physical and emotional weight of the process. For Bunnie, the journey held deeper meaning—a chance to transform her past struggles into purpose. Having had an abortion at 16, plus two life-saving procedures for ectopic pregnancies, she saw her IVF stims as part of God’s plan to give her a voice for other women navigating similar terrain. She and Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason DeFord, were even planning surrogacy, hoping to welcome twins together.

In her memoir Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic (released in February), Bunnie painted a picture of stability and hope. Now that we’re finally stable financially and somewhat emotionally after all the healing we’ve done over this decade together, we’re talking about the future—including growing our family. She’d waited this long to have kids with someone she knew would be a great father, someone who could give her children the best life. Jelly Roll, already a dad to Bailee Ann, 17, and Noah Buddy, 9, from previous relationships, seemed like that person.

But relationships aren’t always built to last, no matter how solid they look from the outside. On May 18, just four months after that hopeful January interview, Jelly Roll filed for divorce. The couple’s date of separation was listed as May 9. Their split, according to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, came down to irreconcileable differences—the legal shorthand for a marriage that simply couldn’t survive. Jelly Roll proposed an equitable division of their shared assets in his filing.

It’s a cruel irony that Bunnie was preparing to expand her family while her marriage was quietly unraveling. The woman who had already survived abortion, ectopic pregnancies, and years of healing was about to face another loss. Yet perhaps her perspective—forged through previous adversity—offers something the rest of us might learn from. She’s spent her public life turning pain into purpose. That doesn’t make this split any less painful, but it suggests she won’t stay down for long.