Jelly Roll's Relationship With His Kids Explained

Tennessee musician Jelly Roll, real name Jason DeFord, has been a creative force for more than 20 years, cutting his teeth in the world of hip-hop, though finding little success in his early years. As fans now know, he experienced crime and addiction before his success, as well as numerous spells behind bars. All the while his music career continued to flag. But recent years have proven to be a remarkable turnaround for Jelly Roll, whose 2021 single "Son of a Sinner" made him into a massive country music star. In 2024, he scooped three prestigious Country Music Awards, and he has built an enormous following with his music and on his social media channels.

With great fame comes increased interest in Jelly Roll's tragic private life, the details of which underpin his music. Intrigue has also been magnified by the fact he is married to Bunnie Xo, a podcaster, influencer, entrepreneur, and notable celebrity in her own right. Jelly Roll is also the father of two children, whose lives have come into the public sphere in recent years.

Like other country music stars, Jelly Roll's early life was tragic, including run-ins with the law at an eye-wateringly young age. "I got caught with a cannabis charge in Antioch and a pack of cigarettes as a juvenile," he told The New York Times. "They cited me, and the cop trusted me to take the citation to my family and go to court ... Which, of course, I didn't. So the police had to show up and haul me to jail. That was at 13." 

By the age of 25, Jelly Roll had been incarcerated around 40 times. One of the most serious charges against him came at the age of 23, when he was once again imprisoned for dealing drugs. On May 22, 2008, Jelly Roll was in his jail cell when he was informed that he had become father to a baby girl, Bailee Ann. The shame he felt at being absent for her birth was the impetus for him to reform. The story of Bailee Ann's birth and the changes he made as a result — he has remained out of prison since and attended meetings for addiction — has become the defining moment of the Jelly Roll legend.

Addiction is one of the major themes of Jelly Roll's work. His personal experiences around drug use have provided material for his lyrics and helped his music to connect with millions of listeners who've had similar experiences. As Jelly Roll has reformed his life and is now in recovery, some critics and fans have struggled to see how, as an artist, he could continue telling such dark, personal stories.

Speaking to The New York Times in 2024, Jelly Roll makes it clear that the stories he tells aren't exclusively his own. Many of his fans now seek him out to share their own experiences with him, and he also takes inspiration from the stories and phrases of people he hears speak at addiction support groups. He is also concerned with the role addiction has played in the lives of his extended family, including the mother of Bailee Ann, who herself has spent time behind bars. Though the mother has achieved periods of sobriety since giving birth to her daughter, she has since relapsed.

In 2017, amid the turmoil, Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo were granted custody of Bailee Ann. While Jelly Roll has shown himself to be a committed role model for his teenage daughter, she also has a close relationship with Xo. The couple have supported Bailee Ann in trying to rekindle her relationship with her biological mother where possible, though the bond remains strained.

What's clear from Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo's social media channels and numerous podcast appearances is that they are loving parents who enjoy a great degree of mutual understanding and affection with the singer's daughter. Indeed, in many ways their life together appears idyllic, particularly when one remembers the difficulties the family has had to overcome to get to where it is today.

Jelly Roll's recent commercial success has come after a great deal of adversity, but even as his career was beginning to take off, problems persisted — especially for Bailee Ann. Speaking to Taste of Country, Jelly Roll has admitted that she was "bitter" at first about his growing star stature because it meant that he was less present in her life. "She looked at this thing like, 'This thing's really cool and it helps out family and all this other stuff, but this dude is also gone 200 days a year because of it,'" he explained. However, he claims that Bailee Ann is now happy for her father's success and enjoying the high life that comes with it, which includes flights to visit her father around the country while he's on tour.

2016 was a big year for Jelly Roll. For starters, his family grew even bigger — on August 23, his first son, Noah Buddy, was born. News of the arrival first came on Facebook, with details later emerging that the mother of the child wasn't Bunnie Xo, but a woman from a previous relationship. 

Later that month, Jelly Roll married Bunnie Xo, just one year after meeting her at one of his shows in Las Vegas. The singer proposed onstage at a Deftones concert, and the two eloped that same night to have a Vegas wedding (their marriage has one pretty strange detail, too). While Jelly Roll is present in Noah's life — he even sports a tattoo above his right eyebrow with his son's name — the child primarily lives with his mother and custodial parent, Melisa. Still, Jelly Roll, Xo, and Noah's mother reportedly get along very well.

Jelly Roll was a comparatively obscure musician when he first shared news of his son's birth via his Facebook page. Unsurprisingly, his phenomenal rise to the peak of country music fame has definitely had repercussions for his private life. Yet it appears that the singer and his family have been levelheaded in their approach to finding themselves in the public eye.

One example of this is Jelly Roll's decision to give his son Noah minimal exposure through his social media channels. He says this is out of respect for both his son and his son's mother. "I try not to get in the way of what she is building over there, and I never want to step on her toes, with what she's doing with him, that I want to just respect that boundary," he told Taste of Country.

However, in 2023, shortly after Jelly Roll's commercial breakthrough, followers of the musician and his family were treated to a virtual meeting with Noah, who appeared in a short video alongside Bunnie Xo that was posted to social media. Jelly Roll has explained that the video was shot when Noah was on vacation with his father and stepmother, and that Xo got permission to post the video from Noah's birth mother. In the video, 6-year-old Noah tells the family's followers that his favorite color is red, that he loves Pokemon and soccer, and that he would like a pet dog and a cat, among other endearing details. More recently, Noah has joined Bailee Ann in making public appearances with Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo.