In June 2024, Jelly and Bunnie confirmed they were exploring ways to expand their family through in vitro fertilization (IVF).
“My wife and I are talking about having a baby,” the singer shared in an episode of the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast. “It really made me realize at almost 40, I was like, that means I got to live to at least 60 – I got to see this kid into college. My plan was never to be 60; it was to be like 55… Now I’m like, well, I’d like to see my 60s, you know what I mean.”
Bunnie shared a clip from the podcast alongside the text, “Papabear dropped a surprise on this pod today. We had planned on doing this privately, but decided our IVF journey needed to be shared because we’ve always been so open. w/ all odds stacked against us, it’s already been hard & we have only just begun.”
In another post, Bunnie revealed they had been meeting with IVF doctors and “exploring all [their] options to add to [their] family.”
She also added the text, “God Willing- Baby DeFord 2026,” in the caption.
Before the release of her book Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic, she admitted to People that her journey to become a mom had been challenging.
“I don’t know if it’s that I did or if I didn’t choose it, but I think before we come here, we choose our life path, and we yearn for the pain that we go through,” she shared. “And I genuinely think that having those abortions when I was younger [and] the journey that I’m going on now with IVF [is] God’s putting me through this again, so that I can be a voice for those women who are going through this process.”
Bunnie continued, “And there are women out there that are doing 10 to 15 egg retrievals. They are freaking warriors. My hat goes off to these women, and they’re just such a cool community. So God is… Everything happens for a reason. It always comes around full circle.”
Bunnie revealed in her memoir – which was published months before Jelly filed for divorce – she had experiences with abortion and two ectopic pregnancies.