Bunnie Xo has addressed why she chose to delete a podcast episode in which she opened up about her split from Jelly Roll, despite revealing it earned her around $100,000.
The country star, 46, addressed the decision during the Thursday, July 9, episode of her podcast Dumb Blonde, weeks after news broke that Jelly Roll, 41, had filed for divorce on May 18 after nearly a decade of marriage.
“I took it down because I realised I just don’t want one of the hardest moments of my life to become a permanent headline,” Bunnie said.
“I don’t want to live in that,” she continued, explaining that while she values being open with her audience, she also believes people deserve the opportunity to heal and move forward.
“That episode served a purpose for me at that time. It was real, it was honest, and it came from exactly where I was emotionally in that moment. But I’m not in that same place anymore.”
Bunnie also pushed back against criticism suggesting she moved on too quickly after the breakup.
“People are like, ‘She moved on so fast.’ Hold up. I’ve been mourning the loss of my marriage for at least a year,” she said, adding that much of what she endured happened privately.
She described the emotional toll of the separation, saying she experienced moments where she was “on the floor screaming, crying” and struggled to eat or drink to the point she feared hospitalisation.
“I couldn’t even stand up because I was so f****** devastated,” she admitted.
The podcast host said she intentionally avoided becoming overly emotional on air because of a previous experience discussing a breakup with Jelly Roll in 2018.
“I don’t like being that vulnerable,” she said. “But at the same time, I want women to know, ‘You’re gonna f****** get through it. You’re gonna survive.'”
Bunnie also made it clear she doesn’t want her divorce to define her public identity.
“I don’t want the divorce to become my entire personality. I don’t want to be the poster child for divorce,” she said, adding that there is much more to her life than this difficult period.
Addressing speculation that she deleted the episode for attention or financial reasons, Bunnie insisted the decision had nothing to do with views or revenue.
“If I wanted views, I’d be on TikTok. But I don’t care about the views, I don’t care about the money,” she said.
She concluded by stressing that removing the episode wasn’t an attempt to erase what happened.
“I’m not hiding anything or pretending it didn’t happen,” Bunnie said. “If you guys will allow me to grow, I’ll keep growing out loud and healing out loud.”
In the now-deleted episode, Bunnie revealed that the marriage ended after an argument on Mother’s Day.
She also confirmed that Jelly Roll has started dating again, denied rumors linking her romantically to Chad Kroeger, and shared that despite the divorce, the former couple still plans to have a baby together.
