Nelly and Ashanti — who declared their engagement and pregnancy in April 2024 — are now married, with freely available reports posting their wedding date as December 27, 2023.
The couple have previously made the next stride in their relationship and gotten hitched, in spite of declaring their relationship and pregnancy about two months ago.
According to public records that TMZ obtained, their wedding day was December 27, 2023. The marriage became legally binding in St. Louis County, which is where Nelly’s hometown of St. Louis is located, despite the fact that the documents did not specify the exact location of their nuptials.
More than two decades after their first encounter, Nelly and Ashanti announced their engagement. Ashanti stated at the time that they were concentrating on their respective careers when the couple ended their relationship in 2013.
However, in September, Nelly, 49, confirmed that they had rekindled their relationship after years of separation.
“I think it surprised both of us. But sometimes being separate, you understand one another more, where you could be like, ‘Well, yo, let me exactly see, maybe, what they see.’ ‘Cause you know we all can be defensive sometimes in our own relationships. And we know we’re wrong, but we’re going to stand on it”, the rapper said.
Early this year, Ashanti made the announcement that she was expecting a child with Nelly. She said that the past few months had been filled with “love, hope, and anticipation.”
In an April statement, the “Rock Wit U” singer told ESSENCE,
“Motherhood is something that I have looked forward to, and sharing this with my family, fiancé, and loyal fans, who have been so supportive of my career, is an amazing experience.”
This will be the first child for the couple, but Nelly is already a father to daughter Chanelle, 30, and son Cornell Haynes III, 25, with ex Channetta Valentine. He also adopted Sydney and Shawn Thomas, the children of his sister Jackie Donahue, who died of cancer in 2005.
At the 2003 45th Grammy Awards nomination announcement, Nelly and Ashanti first met.
During the VH1 Behind the Music special, she recalled,
“The first time I met Nelly, he asked me for my autograph but I think he was being sarcastic,” she recalled during VH1’s Behind the Music special. “I remember writing it down on the program, and that picture has been in so many publications as ‘something else.’ But it all started out as a joke.”
However, a romance did not begin immediately.
Ashanti went on to say, “For the record, it took him a long time to get my number.”
The “Happy” singer and the “Hot In Herre” artist continued to attend a number of events together over the following few years, including each other’s birthday celebrations.
And keeping in mind that Ashanti affirmed to Individuals she and Nelly went out, she made it clear they were “not sweetheart and sweetheart.”
“Me and Nelly, we’re good friends. We kick it–hang out a lot,” she told People at the time. “The industry is very hard, so it’s good to have fun and lighten it up. As for any rumors that a wedding was in the works? “Oh no. Noooo! No engagement,” But definitely in the future. Ha! Ha!”, Ashanti said.
In 2009, reports spread that Nelly and Ashanti had broken up.
“We’re always going to be cool,” he told VladTV in 2010 about where they stand. “We’re friends. It’s definitely something that, right now, my focus is 5.0. Her focus is her album and getting her music and stuff like that together. And I think it’s just one of those things.”
However, the “Just a Dream” rapper continued to play coy about their history.
“To say we split up is to say that we were together,” he added. “Our relationship has been based in the media because it’s nothing we ever said about it.”
He continued, “To say we split up is to say that we were together.” Because neither of us ever said anything about it, our relationship has been reported in the media.
However, Ashanti stoked split rumors in 2013.
“Nelly and I are in the space where I’m kind of like focusing on my career,” she said on Hot 97. “He’s focusing on what he’s doing. There’s a lot of things that happened this year. A lot of things went public more than other things have gone public before.”
“I have to do me,” Ashanti, who released her album Braveheart in 2014, continued. “We’re in that space right now. And there were things that were said and things that were done that probably shouldn’t have been said or done but they have been.”
She then confirmed the split in 2015.
“I think sometimes when people have their own insecurities it allows them to act out of character,” she said on The Meredith Vieira Show. “I’ve been betrayed. Again, you just have to grow. You have to grow up. You have to accept responsibilities for the things that you do.”
“I’m not a big fan of people being cowards,” she added. “So I think that it’s just really important to know yourself and understand what you want and get it. You know, I’m in a different place right now.”
In 2021, when Ashanti and Nelly joined Jermaine Dupri, Papoose, Ma, Fat Joe, Ja Rule and Lil’ Mo for VERZUZ: Fat Joe Vs Ja Rule.
Nelly And Ashanti Have Some Exciting News To Share!
They performed again the following year, and the ‘John Tucker Must Die’ star later stated whether or not she believed in second chances.
“What I will say is I believe that people evolve,” she said on Bevy Smith’s Bevelations. “I believe that people grow. I believe that people learn from their mistakes—some of them, not everybody. You know what I’m saying? I feel like you definitely have to go through something that makes you change in your time.”
As she later put it, “We have to see. I mean, what’s meant to be will be, undoubtedly. Did I think a few years ago that I’d be performing with Nelly on stage? No.”
In 2023, Ashanti confirmed that she and Nelly rekindled their romance, and the “Country Grammar” artist suggested they hadn’t anticipated getting back together.
“We cool again,” he said on Boss Moves With Rasheeda. “I think it surprised both of us, though. It wasn’t anything that was like, I don’t think, planned. I think we both was pretty much doing what we do. But sometimes being separate, you understand one another more.”
Ashanti announces she and Nelly are engaged and having a baby.
“This new year of my life is such a blessing full of love, hope, and anticipation,” she told Essence. “Motherhood is something that I have looked forward to, and sharing this with my family, fiancé, and loyal fans, who have been so supportive of my career, is an amazing experience.”
