While performing in Saratoga Springs, Grammy-winning country crooner Jelly Roll broke his silence about news that he’d filed for divorce from wife Bunnie Xo, who he said “will be my best friend forever.”
The “I Am Not Okay” singer, born Jason Bradley DeFord, told the upstate New York crowd that “the internet is a liar,” according to a video he posted to his 5.8 million Instagram followers.
“This is the only time, and the only city I’m gonna speak about this. So break your camera phones out now,” said Jelly Roll. “Me and my wife are best friends. We will always be best friends. We just got off the phone earlier today. Nobody cheated on nobody. She just did a whole podcast about it. You can go watch it. Every word of it is the truth.”
That podcast episode referred to Bunnie’s “The Divorce” episode of “Dumb Blonde,” in which she denied she’s moved on with Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger, per Us Weekly.
The singer said Bunnie Xo, real name Alisa DeFord, “will be my best friend forever. This is the only time I will ever speak about it. Bunnie, I love you, baby. Thank you for those 10 years.”
He said the years of their marriage, from summer 2016 until he filed for divorce last month, were “incredible. Thank you for the next 10 years of friendship. And 20 beyond that.”
“With that being said, cheers, everybody,” he concluded, thanking the crowd.
Though Jelly Roll said infidelity didn’t play a role in their split, he and Bunnie both respectively discussed him cheating during the union. The “Son of a Sinner” singer admitted to it on an October 2025 episode of the “Human School” podcast, while Bunnie addressed it in her recent memoir, “Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic.”
“I wish our story would’ve went in the way that it never had an affair,” he said at the time. “I’m proud of who we are today. I truly am.”
Bunnie, meanwhile, told Us in February that the experience “completely changed who we are as humans and how we looked at love.”
“It’s a part of what we’ve survived,” she said elsewhere in the interview. “We choose to be together every day.”