Between touring and appearing on shows like “American Idol,” rapper Jelly Roll keeps himself very busy. However, he still makes time to build and maintain a tight-knit family. On December 4th, 2025, the rapper turned 41. Before the big day, his daughter, Bailee Ann, stunned him and his wife, Bunnie XO, with a touching birthday surprise at a prom-themed party. “She crowned us King and Queen,” Bunnie XO captioned an Instagram video from the event. “And we danced and sang like teenagers who finally got their moment, all because our baby wanted to make us smile.”
The couple has been open about the fact that neither finished traditional high school, so the party was symbolic of what they missed out on as teens. Bunnie XO and Jelly Roll even shared a touching dance after receiving their crowns. “This made me cry!!” one fan wrote in the post’s comments section. “She’s so special & so is the bond between you all!” Although Bailee’s life didn’t have the smoothest start, Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO have clearly built a strong foundation for her over the years.
Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO Built a Supportive Family
GettyWhen Bailee Ann was born in 2008, Jelly Roll was still serving time in prison. “I’ve never had nothing in life that urged me in the moment to know that I had to do something different,” the rapper told Billboard of his reaction to his daughter’s birth. Sadly, the pair didn’t meet until Bailee’s second birthday, after he had finished serving his sentence. However, the pair made up for lost time later in life; because her birth mother struggled with addiction, Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO won custody of Bailee in 2017.
The couple didn’t stop there. In addition to raising Bailee, they lent support to her birth mother, inviting her back into their daughter’s life after she achieved sobriety. “I had an extra, interesting, traumatic childhood. Bunnie did, my dad did,” Bailee explained in the documentary “Jelly Roll: Save Me,” as People shared. “They’re important reasons for why my mom is in my life now and is sober.” In 202, Jelly Roll posted a Facebook photo of mother and daughter being reunited. Jelly Roll is also the father of Noah Buddy DeFord, who lives with his birth mother.
The Rapper is Extremely Proud of Who Bailee has Become
GettyToday, Jelly Roll takes every opportunity to talk about how proud he is of his daughter. When he swept the 2023 CMT Awards, he tearfully thanked Bailee in an after-interview with ET. “You’ve changed my life in so many ways,” he began. “She knows the story, she knows how real it is. And I’m just proud of her.”
As Bailee has gotten older, Jelly Roll hasn’t shied away from telling her the truth about his life. In 2024, he told People how he was approaching those subjects with his then-16-year-old, giving her high praise in the process. When telling Bailee how much potential he sees in her, Jelly Roll said, “You’re so much smarter than I was at 16. You’re so much better, so much more emotionally intelligent.” As for Bailee, she has shown interest in pursuing her education beyond high school. As People reported, she told her stepmom on an episode of her “Dumb Blonde” podcast that she hopes to study law at Columbia University.
