Ashanti has ‘been waiting to be a mom for a long time.’ With Nelly, she welcomes a baby boy
Looks as if Ashanti has a new baby to sing about: her first child, with rapper Nelly.
The “Baby” singer announced Monday that she and the “Hot in Herre” rapper had recently welcomed their baby. She flaunted her post-partum figure for an Instagram video shared Monday. “Four weeks post-partum, you have no idea what this body can do,” she says, wearing labor recovery shorts.
In her caption, Ashanti reflected her life plans, joking how they haven’t been “always on time.” Before they became parents together, Nelly and Ashanti were exes. Before splitting in 2013, the “Body on Me” collaborators had dated on and off for 11 years. They rekindled their romance in September 2023 and got married that December.
Nelly and Ashanti, expecting their first child, are officially husband and wife after quietly marrying late last year, according to a legal documents database.
“I’ve been waiting to be a mom for a long time now but nothing could prepare me for EVERYTHING motherhood brings!,” Ashanti wrote, adding, “I’m so proud of my body for giving me my baby, baby, baby, baby, baby.”
Ashanti, 43, and Nelly, 49 welcomed Kareem Kenkaide Hayes on July 18, a representative confirmed to People. “The proud and happy parents are so in love with KK,” the rep added.
Representatives for Ashanti and Nelly did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment Wednesday.
Ashanti and Nelly confirmed months of pregnancy rumors in an ad for their diagnostics company. The R&B star also separately confirmed that they’re engaged.
Ashanti announced the birth of her first child weeks after Nelly had a run-in with police in his home state. He was arrested Aug. 7 at a St. Louis-area casino on suspicion of possession of ecstasy pills.
At the time, the Grammy winner’s legal representative Scott Rosenblum told the Associated Press that the rapper had won several jackpots and that when he sought to collect them, the officer who would have supervised the transaction “needlessly” ran a search for warrants.
According to AP, online Missouri court records show that Nelly, born Cornell Haynes II, was cited in June 2018 in Maryland Heights, Mo., for operating a vehicle without proper proof of insurance. A judge issued a warrant in December 2023, and it remained outstanding.
Rosenblum alleged that the police official had no probable cause to justify searching Nelly, who Rosenblum said hadn’t been notified of the warrant and did not know about it.
Nelly was arrested in his home state of Missouri early Wednesday, according to the state highway patrol.
“I am 100% confident this case will go nowhere,” the attorney said. “And we will be asking for an inquiry into this officer’s conduct.”
Kareem Kenkaide is Nelly’s third biological child. He shares two grown children — Chanelle and Cornell Haynes III — with ex-girlfriend Channetta Valentine. He also adopted his late sister Jackie’s two children after she died of leukemia in 2005.
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