Nelly opens up about what motivated him to want to get married to Ashanti so quickly after finding out they were pregnant in 2023.
Nelly, who has been basking in the glow of his new marriage and new baby with Ashanti, is getting candid about when he knew (this time around) that the couple was going to be together forever.
Speaking on “The Bootleg Kev podcast,” the 50-year-old rapper said the timing of their rekindling and pregnancy all culminated in him realizing the 44-year-old R&B star was the one, though initially, when they found out she was pregnant, they hadn’t yet discussed marriage.
“I was like, ‘Yo, let’s just knock this out because we’re going to be doing so much, and everything’s moving so fast,’” he said, adding, “I didn’t want her to be a baby mama because we already knew where we were in life. If we’re back like this, this must be what it’s supposed to be.”
After dating off and on in the early 2000s, the pair officially re-sparked things by September 2023. Upon learning the songstress was pregnant with her first child, they were married by December 2023 but didn’t confirm it until a month before their first child was born.
Ashanti revealed that she and Nelly were expecting their first child together during an April 2024 interview with Essence. They welcomed their bundle of joy, a baby boy named Kareem, on July 18, 2024. Speaking about motherhood to People magazine in November, Ashanti told the outlet what “a blessing” baby Kareem had been.
“He’s a blessing. He’s an angel. My life is amazing right now. I’m super blessed so happy. I’m insanely in love with him,” she said.
Kareem marks their first baby together and Nelly’s third altogether. The rapper is also father to son Cornell III (who goes by Tre), 25, and daughter Chanelle (who goes by Nana), 30. The rapper also helped raise niece Sydney and nephew Shawn after his sister Jackie Donahue died of leukemia at age 31 in March 2005.
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