In a recent episode of “Nelly & Ashanti: We Belong Together,” it was disclosed that Nelly does not get up at night when his child cries. Nelly and Ashanti are parents to Kareem, who will be a year old on July 18.
“You know what? It’s absolutely ridiculous that you’ll still be dead asleep and he’ll be mad loud,” Ashanti says in a clip from the Peacock reality series.
Nelly responds that he just “doesn’t hear” the noise. “It’s ridiculous,” Ashanti, 44, says.
“It’s a gift, I guess,” he replies. Not too long after, he adds, “I’m blessed with that tune-out.”
Ashanti maintains that Nelly should be helping with diaper changes. “Baby, I said I’d give you the world. I just ain’t changing no diaper.”
Talking about Nelly’s “Where’s the Party At” tour, Ashanti says in the now-viral clip, “The wife and mommy side of me is a little sad. You know, Daddy’s gonna be gone for a long time […] It’s just with the baby it’s a lot.”
Nelly replies, “Well, listen. It’s all you. I ain’t gonna even lie. You know, I ain’t got nothing for him.”
The camera then cuts to a different clip, where the 50-year-old rapper is seen telling Jermaine Dupri and others that he wasn’t going to do any baby duties soon.
“Until he [Kareem] can say, ‘I’m hungry,’ until he can say, ‘I need to use the bathroom,’ it’s gonna be a lot in [Ashanti’s] lap,” Nelly states. “But as soon as he starts walking, I told her, I said ‘Enjoy.’ ‘Cause as soon as he get to walking and talking, he with the crew,” Nelly adds.
His comments did not sit well with fans online. “She waited all these years to have a baby by a teenager,” one person wrote. “This Nelly & Ashanti business is dare I say, ‘Foolish’,” another commented.
A third tweeted, “Nelly and Ashanti singlehandedly destroyed all the good spin the block PR that was happening on this here app with just that one clip and I can’t thank them enough for it. Won’t he do it?!”
Grammy Award-winning artists Ashanti and Nelly first revealed they were expecting their first child together through a playful Instagram video.
As Ashanti prepared for a performance, her mom asked how much time she needed, to which the singer replied, “I’m gonna need about nine months,” leaving her mom stunned. In an interview with Essence, Ashanti confirmed both her pregnancy and her engagement to Nelly.
“This new year of my life is such a blessing full of love, hope, and anticipation,” Ashanti told the outlet. “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.”
Nelly and Ashanti tied the knot on December 27, 2023, as confirmed by documents obtained by PEOPLE in June. TMZ first broke the news of their wedding. The couple sparked pregnancy rumors during the 11th Black and White Ball at the Four Seasons Hotel, when they shared a moment onstage together.
Ashanti rested her hands on her stomach, and Nelly followed suit, leading to shared smiles and laughter that fans saw as a hint of baby news.
Nelly is already a father to two adult children: son Cornell III, 26, and daughter Chanelle, 31. He also helped raise his niece Sydney and nephew Shawn following the death of his sister, Jackie Donahue, who passed away from leukemia at 31 in 2005.
