Jelly Roll stops Saratoga show to address divorce, says “Internet is a liar too”

Jelly Roll stopped the Little ASS Shed Tour in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Thursday night (June 18) to address his divorce from Bunnie Xo, and he made one thing very clear: it’s the only time he’s going to talk about it. After performing “Liar,” he told the audience, “I wasn’t going to talk about this tonight, but while we’re talking about liars, the Internet is a liar too.”

He then leaned into the version of events he says is true. He reiterated that he and Bunnie Xo “are best friends,” adding, “We will always be best friends,” and said they “just got off the phone earlier today.” Crucially, he also said, “Nobody cheated on nobody.” That is the heart of the moment. This isn’t a general statement about privacy. It’s a direct response to a public narrative that has already been spinning.

According to TMZ, the divorce started with Jelly Roll filing for divorce from Bunnie Xo on May 18 after 10 years together. Hours after Bunnie Xo posted a new episode of her Dumb Blonde podcast addressing their pending divorce, Jelly Roll put up his response on his socials. On stage, he went further than a shrug or a vague “we’ll handle it privately.” He anchored his message to his marriage and to the rumors the internet has been pushing, specifically positioning his words as corrective.

Jelly Roll also referenced Bunnie’s podcast content, saying that every word of it was true. That line matters because it tries to unify the story from both sides at the exact moment both of them are publicly speaking. From a communications standpoint, it is an attempt to collapse ambiguity. If fans see two separate public accounts, the debate never ends. If they see alignment, the audience has less to argue about.

On Thursday, Bunnie Xo had already addressed her own timeline and disputes. She declared she still loves Jelly Roll, and she addressed false rumors that she cheated with Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger or that Jelly Roll was dating pop/country singer Jessie Murph, the artist he duetted with on “Wild Ones.” She also offered a look at what she says precipitated the divorce. On the podcast, she said the pair had a fight on Mother’s Day and she told him to “file the f-ing divorce papers.” And, in her telling, it happened. She explained that the divorce was not mutual even though she told him to file, adding, “I was speaking out of anger and just frustration.”

She then reframed the split as a kind of wakeup call. “Was this divorce mutual? No, it was not mutual,” she said, and then, “But was it necessary for us to have a wakeup call? … Absolutely.” She said she and her husband are “ending this marriage on the best possible terms that you could ever have a divorce.” She added that over the past 18 months, they had “stopped communicating together,” placing the blame less on a single event and more on a stretched deterioration.

There’s also the separate but equally public chapter of having a child. The pair had been open about their struggles to have a child and their IVF journey, and Bunnie said the divorce is not ending that quest. “We’re still having a baby together. We’re going to co-parent together,” she said. She also described Jelly Roll as involved and supportive, saying he “has been so f-in’ great about us having a baby together,” and that they “’re going to raise our little nugget as one big happy family.”

From stage, Jelly Roll’s messaging stayed tightly on relationships and boundaries. He brought Bunnie into the moment explicitly, saying, “That will be my best friend forever… Bunnie, I love you, baby. Thank you for those 10 years.” And he restated that this would be the only time he addresses the divorce. That matters in the age of instant narrative churn. Once a divorce becomes a content engine, every new post invites more speculation. By setting a boundary now, he’s trying to prevent the story from multiplying.

For executives, operators, and anyone who handles brand risk, this is a useful real-world case of what happens when private matters get public attention fast. There’s no regulator here like there would be in finance or healthcare, but there is an “information regulator,” the internet, which the star himself accused of lying. The second-order implication is still real: once misinformation enters the ecosystem, you either correct it quickly or you live inside it. Jelly Roll corrected the specific cheating and dating rumors directly, linked his claims to Bunnie’s statements, and tried to close the loop by telling fans he’s done with the topic.

The tour continues. Jelly Roll’s Little ASS Shed Tour is scheduled to run Saturday night, June 20 at Maine Savings Amphitheater in Bangor, Maine. And the bigger takeaway for peers in the spotlight is straightforward: when your audience is already reading headlines, your best leverage is speed, clarity, and a clean boundary line. Jelly Roll’s move was designed to do exactly that.