At some point, the uncomfortable baby question has to be asked.
Almost four weeks after Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo, 46, officially ended their marriage, speculation has continued to swirl around their reported intention to welcome a child together. Yet while headlines have suggested the country star is fully supportive, Jelly Roll himself has not publicly confirmed that position.
After years spent navigating celebrity PR and later covering the entertainment industry, I’ve come to understand that the missing quote can sometimes say more than the statement everyone is waiting for.
And right now, Jelly Roll’s silence is becoming increasingly hard to ignore.
‘Jelly loves Bunnie. He respects her. He doesn’t want to hurt her, and he knows how important becoming a mother is to her,’ a music industry insider who has worked closely with Jelly Roll, 41, tells me. ‘But trying to spare Bunnie’s feelings is not the same as being ready to have a baby with your ex-wife.’
Bunnie, for her part, has left little room for doubt about her hopes for motherhood.
Almost one month after Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo finalized their divorce, the conversation around their rumored baby plans shows no sign of slowing down
Speaking in June on her podcast, ‘Dumb Blonde,’ she told listeners: ‘We’re still having a baby together.’ She also said Jelly had been ‘so f***ing great’ about the idea, insisting that ‘he wants the same thing.’
So, what has Jelly said about where he and Bunnie stand post break-up?
Also in June, while addressing their divorce publicly, Jelly described Bunnie as his ‘best friend,’ that he’d love her forever and he made clear that their split was not about infidelity; ‘nobody cheated on nobody.’ But he did not speak about a baby.
To be clear, I am not alleging that Bunnie is lying. I believe she genuinely wants to have a baby with Jelly via surrogate. I trust that she believes Jelly wants this, too. After all, the duo aren’t exactly new to parenting together. While they were a couple, Bunnie spent nearly a decade caring for Jelly’s two biological children, Bailee and Noah.
But somewhere along the way, it seems to me that Bunnie’s insistence that she and Jelly will continue their efforts to have a child through IVF (which they started during their marriage) post-divorce, has been accepted as a joint declaration.
‘If Jelly wanted the world to know that he was still planning to have a child with Bunnie after the divorce, he could say it. He hasn’t,’ a music source who’s worked around Jelly and his team tells me.
That is not proof that Jelly has changed his mind, but it may suggest that his mind is not entirely made up.
‘Wanting something desperately doesn’t make it a shared decision,’ a mutual friend who knows Jelly and Bunnie tells me. ‘I understand why she is holding onto the plan. But Jelly gets a vote.’
The Daily Mail has contacted Jelly Roll’s representatives about this reporting and have not received a response.
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Since Jelly filed for divorce in May and after the couple finalized their separation on July 17, Jelly is now reportedly dating again. He has also announced that he is stepping away from touring for an extended period for emotional healing.
Bunnie is building a new life, too; new expensive home, new fancy car – even a public make-out session with 24-year-old television star Dylan Wolf over the July 4 weekend.
It seems to me that Bunnie’s insistence that she and Jelly will continue their efforts to have a child through IVF post-divorce has been accepted as a joint declaration
While they were a couple, Bunnie spent nearly a decade caring for Jelly’s two biological children, Bailee and Noah (above)
Rob Shuter’s latest exclusives and insider reporting can be found at robshuter.substack.com. His best-selling novel is It Started With A Whisper
So, it’s fair to ask: as both Bunnie and Jelly publicly move on, why would a child stay in the picture?
‘A baby isn’t a souvenir from a marriage,’ a longtime friend of the couple tells me. ‘Parenthood is permanent.’
That’s something that both were reportedly warned about. Their divorce agreement, released in mid-July, specifically addressed the potential legal complications of having children together. They were also reportedly told that their attorneys were not specialists in genetic and reproductive rights and were advised to seek additional expert counsel, which they both reportedly chose not to do.
In the end, this isn’t about whether two people can remain connected after a divorce. Of course they can.
This is about whether two divorced people, starting separate lives, want to bring another person into the mix. That requires more than love. More than history. More than a promise made when the circumstances were more favorable.
It requires two people clearly saying ‘yes.’
Rob Shuter’s latest exclusives and insider reporting can be found at robshuter.substack.com. His best-selling novel is It Started With A Whisper.
