Bullying over weight drove Jelly Roll offline, wife says

“It hurts him.”

That’s what Jelly Roll’s wife, Bunnie XO, says in a promo clip for this week’s episode of the “Dumb Blonde” podcast. In text overlaid on the clip, she promised: “This week I go off on the podcast.. def going to ruffle some feathers & I didn’t stutter.”

“My husband got off the internet because he was so tired of being bullied about his f— weight,” she said. “And, like, that makes me want to cry, because he is the sweetest angel baby.”

She noted that “the internet” can say whatever it wants about a person and then say, “Well, you’re a celebrity, you’re supposed to be able to handle it. Well no the f— we’re not.”

“I’m sorry, I’m gonna stand up for all the underdogs,” Bunnie said.

Jelly Roll, a self-proclaimed “extrovert by nature” who was the Country Music Association’s new artist of the year in 2023, is the man behind hits including “Need a Favor” and “Save Me.” The performer born Jason DeFord has been with Alyssa DeFord, aka Bunnie XO, since they met at one of his shows in 2015. The couple married in 2016.

Jelly Roll had mentioned his weight and hinted at the sting of comments about it in a 2023 interview, where he talked about the reasons Nashville insiders initially said no to him when he was trying to break into the country music scene.

“Somebody told me I was too fat to be relatable. They said it a little nicer. Not much — I mean, it’s hard to say that nice.”

The 39-year-old told People earlier this month that he was working on fitness, was down about “70-something pounds” already and planned to lose an additional 100 pounds or more.