Jelly Roll's 2 Kids: All About Daughter Bailee Ann and Son Noah

Mar. 15, 2025

Jelly Roll’s Kids, Bailee Ann and Noah Buddy.Photo:Jelly Roll Instagram ; Jelly Roll Facebook

Jelly Roll Instagram ; Jelly Roll Facebook

Jelly Rollis a proud and protective papa bear to two kids: daughter Bailee Ann and son Noah Buddy.

The country music singer has repeatedly said how the birth of his daughter in 2008 forever changed his life for the better. On the day Bailee was born, Jelly Roll was in prison for drug dealing.

“I could no longer be selfish. There was something that was solely relying on me,” Jelly Roll openly shared with 105.7The Point. “I knew that that was an important task. So I wanted to take it seriously. And I did. I take it very seriously to this day.”

Jelly Roll andhis wife Bunnie XOeloped in 2016 and were granted primary custody of Bailee. Their family of three also grew that year with the addition of Jelly Roll’s son from a previous relationship.

The couple rarely posts about Bailee and Noah on social media out of privacy, but that hasn’t stopped the “Son of a Sinner” vocalist from praising his kids in interviews.

Jelly Roll with his father, and kids, Bailee Ann and Noah.Jelly Roll Instagram

Jelly Roll Instagram

“She knows the story. She knows how real it is. I’m just proud of her,” he toldEntertainment Tonight. “I love you, Bailee Ann, so much. I thought about it the moment I walked off stage. You’ve changed my life in so many ways. But it’s just unreal. This is bigger than just a single award for us. We came from nothing.”

Here’s everything to know about Jelly Roll’s kids: Bailee Ann and Noah Buddy.

Bailee Ann, 16

Jelly Roll and his daughter, Bailee Ann in 2022.Jelly Roll Instagram

Bailee Ann was born on May 22, 2008. A 23-year-old at the time, Jelly Roll was incarcerated when he learned of his daughter’s birth — a moment he refers to as his “road to Damascus.”

“A guard knocks on my cell door midafternoon during lockdown. He goes, ‘You had a kid today,’ ” Jelly Roll recalledduring an interview withBillboard. “I’ve never had nothing in life that urged me in the moment to know that I had to do something different. I have to figure this out right now.”

Today, Bailee lives with her father and stepmom, Bunnie XO. The couple were granted full custody of Bailee following her mother’s drug addiction in 2017. On an episode of Bunnie XO’sDumb Blondepodcast, Bailee opened up about her rocky upbringing and shared that she and her mom, Felicia, are working to mend their relationship amidst her recovery journey.

“I had an extra, interesting, traumatic childhood. Bunnie did, my dad did. They’re important reasons for why my mom is in my life now and is sober,” Bailee said during an appearance on her dad’s Hulu documentary,Jelly Roll: Save Me. “As a teenager, I’ve moved on. I’ve worked through my childhood. But that doesn’t make it go away. It made me who I am today.”

Much like her father, Bailee has turned to songwriting as a means of therapy and joy. She wrote “Tears Could Talk” when she was 10 years old and the song was featured on Jelly Roll’s 2010 albumA Beautiful Disaster.Bailee alsoappears alongside her dadin the song’s music video, and has joined him onstage during his Backroad Baptism Tour to perform the duet.

Jelly Roll once again brought Bailee on stage during his performance at Stagecoach in April 2024 to celebrate her birthday since she was set to turn 16 “in, like, 10 days.”

“I figured it would be a really cool dad way to embarrass her if I can do the old ‘Happy birthday to you,’ " he said, later adding that he was hoping it would get him “cool dad points.”

“I took my daughter out of school today and I flew her to California for this show. Don’t tell her teacher,” he said.

During a November 2024 appearance on theDumb Blondepodcast, Bailee said she’s planning to go to college to study law — in particular, Columbia Law School — and focus on criminal defense.

“It’s wild, to be honest. And I think that’s part of the reasonI’m so invested in it,” she said. “Because if I was going into medicine, I would have done medicine, and I hate the medical field. I hate Western medicine. I hate the way that we handle health and health insurance and everything, and I couldn’t — there was no getting into that for me.”

Noah Buddy, 8

Jelly Roll with daughter Bailee Ann, and son, Noah in 2016.Jelly Roll Facebook

Jelly Roll Facebook

Jelly Roll’s son, Noah Buddy DeFord, was born on Aug. 23, 2016.

Apart from abirth announcement on Facebook, Jelly Roll has refrained from publicly speaking about his son in interviews.

Fans got their first major introduction to Noah when he and his stepmom, Bunnie XO,made a TikTok videoahead of his seventh birthday in 2023.

“My name is Noah and my favorite color is red,” he says to the camera with a shy, big smile.

Bunny XO and Noah Buddy DeFord.Bunny XO TikTok

Bunny XO TikTok

Elsewhere in the video, Noah shared that his favorite hobbies are Pokemon and soccer, and that he wants both a dog and cat for a pet. He also teased that he thinks his big sister is cooler than his famous dad.

Speaking withTaste of Countryin August 2023, Jelly Roll shared that Noah is very much part of the family and often goes on vacation with them. In those instances, he added, they traditionally “always try to shoot [social media content] around him” out of respect for Noah and his mom’s privacy.

“With Bailee, I’m the full-time parent, I’m the judge, the jury and the executioner, when it comes to decisions with her,” Jelly Roll explained. “I try not to get in the way of what she [Melisa] is building over there, and I never want to step on her toes, with what she’s doing with him, that I want to just respect that boundary.”

source: people.com