The following article mentions addiction and domestic abuse.
The past few years have been transformative ones for country singer Jelly Roll.
He’s catapulted from obscurity to the pinnacle of the music industry.
So who is the increasingly popular and often-misunderstood woman behind one of Nashville’s hottest new stars?
After her father remarried, she was raised by him and her stepmother.
“I had a pretty abusive relationship with my stepmother …
I was tired of fist-fighting with this woman every day,” she shared.
When she was just 14 years old, she left her childhood house for good.
Bunnie elaborated on her experience as a teenage runaway shaped her future.
I figure it out, it’s what I do."
“I worked regular jobs,” she said of those years.
“I literally was in real estate …
I actually was a lifeguard …
The lifestyle she was in, however, brought opportunities that pushed her moral boundaries.
She was, and she did, and before long she’d shifted from dancing to sex work.
“Literally, I would make $30, $40,000 a night,” she revealed.
“I had sugar daddies who gave me a half-a-million dollars.
I’ve had cars bought for me, you know, diamonds, jewelry.”
They had mutual friends and kept in touch, even though she was dating another guy at the time.
According to Bunnie, once Jelly Roll got her number, he began calling her in search of advice.
Given that she was then still a sex worker, she’d occasionally FaceTime with him in between clients.
“So we just started a friendship like that,” she explained.
“It’s a white trash love story.”
“A guard knocks on my cell door midafternoon during lockdown,” he recalled in an interview withBillboard.
“He goes, ‘You had a kid today.’
I have to figure this out right now.”
His eldest child, Bailee Ann, was born on May 22, 2008.
However, a contentious relationship with the child’s mother proved to be a stumbling block.
“She made me go to court to even see her.”
That was when Bunnie Xo whom he’d been dating for just a few months stepped in.
Neither wanted a long engagement and decided to tie the knot then and there.
Realizing that they didn’t have much time it was nearing midnight they made a run for it.
“They’re closing the joint down …
I’m like, ‘F*** it.
Let’s just go now,'” Jelly Roll recalled.
“She’s like, ‘The courthouse is open for … 44 more minutes.’
I was like, ‘Let’s f***ing roll.'”
“I married my best friend,” he wrote in aFacebooktribute to Bunnie that he shared in 2019.
“She is the backbone of my entire existence.
I love you mama bear.”
That was just the beginning of what came to become a wildly successful career as a YouTuber.
YouTube is just one of the many social media platforms on which she’s distinguished herself.
On Facebook, for example, she can boast of having in excess of 3.1 million followers.
That came to fruition in 2019, when she launched Dumb Blonde Productions.
It didn’t take long for the podcast’s popularity to explode.
After just a single year, she issued a celebratoryInstagrampost to commemorate the podcast’s first anniversary.
“Watching the podcast grow tremendously this year makes my heart so full,” she wrote.
That success, though, was just the tip of the iceberg.
“THANK YOU FOR 1.7 million downloads for the podcast in January!”
she wrote in anInstagrampost.
“I’m like an extra earring.”
Unsurprisingly, the two were arguably two of thebest-dressed stars at the 2022 CMAs.
“I was like, ‘You’re not a plus-one no more, baby!
You’re a seat!'”
As a result, Bunnie revealed in 2023, they were planning to renew their vows.
He also admitted he was amazed by the kind of income she was generating as an escort.
“And she was really making money in the sex work industry.
Like, real money.
“If she ever writes a book … we’re talking about like CEOs of oil companies.
People you know,” he added.
“Just officially shut down my spicy site,” she wrote.
“What a fun ride that was.”
A year to the day, she returned toFacebookto mark the anniversary of closing down her OnlyFans account.
However, aFacebookpost from the school district disputed that Kalista had been suspended.
Bunnie responded in aFacebookpost of her own, revealing she’d stopped selling the shirts due to the controversy.
She was, however, dubious that the school was telling the truth.
“But being a whistleblower for that school was never my intention.
It’s always been about this little girl having a voice.”
In 2022, she revealed that she and her biological mother finally reconnected.
Two years later, she shared another post on social media, revealing that her mother had died.
“My mom & I never had a relationship because of her addiction,” Bunnie wrote onInstagram.
She concluded by explaining that whatever issues between them had been laid to rest before she passed.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available.
Visit theSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration websiteor contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
