On the 18 June episode of her US podcast 'Dumb Blonde,' Bunnie Xo addressed the Jelly Roll age-gap rumour, denied she is dating Nickelback singer Chad Kroeger, and confirmed that her estranged husband has in fact started seeing other people after filing for divorce. The episode, titled 'The Divorce,' landed just days after news broke that Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason Bradley DeFord, had filed in Tennessee on 18 May after nearly 10 years of marriage to Alisa DeFord, better known as Bunnie Xo.
The speculation had been moving at internet speed before Bunnie said a word. One rumour claimed she had already moved on with Kroeger after posting TikTok content tied to Nickelback, while another tried to pair Jelly Roll with 21-year-old singer Jessi Murph, his collaborator on 'Wild Ones.' It was the sort of messy post-divorce guessing game celebrity culture churns out on autopilot, fast, loud and usually a bit thin on evidence.
Bunnie and the Jelly Roll Age-Gap Rumour
Bunnie used the podcast to shut down the Kroeger chatter in direct terms. According to People, she dismissed the idea that she was in a new relationship and made clear there was no romance between her and the Nickelback frontman.
She also apologised to Kroeger and Nickelback for being dragged into the fallout around her divorce, calling the whole thing embarrassing and crazy.
She sounded irritated, but also oddly protective of the people being pulled into the chaos around her separation. Bunnie said she still had 'so much respect' for Kroeger and insisted there was no 'Chad and Bunnie Xo.'
@xomgitsbunnie Banger #bunniexo
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Then came the second rumour, and this was the one that really cut through. Addressing claims that Jelly Roll was dating Jessi Murph, Bunnie said her husband was not with the younger singer and described the theory as 'absolutely f***ing disgusting,' adding that the roughly 20-year age difference made the speculation disrespectful. She was not asking for nuance, she was telling people to stop.
The wider online speculation remains unverified, so take everything lightly beyond what Bunnie said publicly on the podcast. What can be verified is narrower and more useful. She denied the Kroeger story, rejected the Jessi Murph theory and put her own account of the split on record.
Bunnie Confirms He Is Dating Again
Bunnie said Jelly Roll has started dating, and added that she was happy for him, even while stressing that he is not involved with Murph. She did not name anyone, offer a timeline or try to turn it into a dramatic reveal.
She also framed the divorce in more personal terms than the public filing had done. In the podcast, Bunnie said the marriage reached breaking point after a Mother's Day argument in which she told him to 'file the f—ing divorce papers,' only for him to actually do it. She said the divorce was not mutual, even if the marriage had needed what she described as a wake-up call.
That version of events was later backed, at least in broad terms, by Jelly Roll himself. Billboard reported that he told a New York crowd on 18 June that it would be the only time he spoke publicly about the divorce, adding that he and Bunnie were still best friends, that they had spoken earlier that day, and that 'no one was unfaithful.' He also said everything she had said on the podcast was accurate.
Bunnie, for her part, said she is still 'riding for that man' and has no plans to rush into another relationship herself, even as she prepares to discover what life looks like single.
A couple close to their 10th wedding anniversary split, the internet instantly started matchmaking them with other famous people, and one of them went on her own microphone to draw a few hard lines. In the end, the wildest part was not that Jelly Roll is dating again. It was how quickly everyone else decided they already knew with whom.
