What happened to Jelly Roll’s daughter?

Singer/songwriter Jelly Roll, born Jason Bradley DeFord, has achieved significant success, but one of his proudest accomplishments is being a father to his two children, Bailee Ann and Noah, whom he often talks about in interviews.

Jelly Roll, who was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, had a difficult childhood fraught with challenges, including several arrests and drug addiction. In 2008, a then 23-year-old Jelly Roll was in prison when a guard notified him that his daughter, Bailee Ann, had been born. “The single most impactful event of my entire life was having my daughter. It changed everything,” the singer told People in an interview.

Learning that he had a daughter motivated him to turn his life around. While in prison, he focused on earning his GED, which he passed with ease. Just over a year into his sentence, he was released and was finally able to be present for Bailee Ann just in time for her 2nd birthday.

Bailee Ann, Jelly Roll’s daughter with ex-partner Felicia Beckwith, has had a tough childhood. Beckwith became addicted to prescription medication and heroin after being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, while her new boyfriend was a drug user as well. The home environment wasn’t ideal for Baillee Ann who was just 7 years old and had to take care of herself as well as two young cousins who lived with her and her mother. Seeing his daughter’s living conditions, Jelly Roll, who was then in a relationship with now-wife Bunnie XO, filed for full custody of Bailee Ann, which was granted.

Bailee Ann felt manipulated by her biological mother

Although Bailee Ann has a fractured relationship with Beckwith, she has a strong bond with her “mama,” step-mom Bunnie XO, whom Roll married in 2016. In 2023, she went on Bunnie XO’s Dumb Blonde podcast and opened up about Beckwith. Days before Bailee Ann’s 12th birthday, a sober Beckwith reconnected with her daughter after being released from jail. They began to build a relationship once again and Bailee Ann even spent the summer with her after she turned 14.

However, Beckwith’s sobriety was short-lived, and during their summer together, Bailee Ann came under her mother’s influence. “We start drinking together and I’m like, ‘Ok this is whatever, you’re just a cool mom, you’re letting me drink, you’re letting me smoke weed, this is cool,’” Bailey Ann recalled. She was eventually introduced to harder drugs and even accompanied her mother to meet a drug dealer. Looking back, she described her mother as being “persuasive” and “manipulative,” and she spent the rest of the summer with her “never sober.”

Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO sensed something was wrong when Bailee Ann returned from spending time with Beckwith, prompting all three to attend therapy to help her in her sobriety. She cut ties with her mother and as she said in the podcast, she is “very strict” when it comes to letting her mother in again. “I don’t believe in the middle line or the integration of emotion and logic… I’ve learned with my mother that there is no healing for her,” she expressed. Thankfully, she has the unwavering support of her father as well as her step-mom, and Bailee Ann never shies away from publicly acknowledging how grateful she is for their presence in her life.