Looks like 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 boy. She flaunted her postpartum figure in an Instagram video shared Monday. “Four weeks postpartum, you have no idea what this body can do,” she says, wearing birth recovery shorts.
In her caption, Ashanti reflected on their life plans and joked about how they haven’t been “always on time.” Before becoming parents together, Nelly and Ashanti were exes. Before splitting in 2013, the “Body on Me” collaborators had been dating on and off for 11 years. They rekindled their romance in September 2023 and tied the knot in December of that year.
“I’ve been waiting to be a mother for a long time, but nothing could prepare me for EVERYTHING that 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 rep 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 announced the birth of her first child weeks after Nelly had an altercation 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 tried to cash them out, the officer who would have overseen the transaction “unnecessarily” conducted a search for warrants.
According to AP, Missouri court records posted online show that Nelly, whose real name was Cornell Haynes II, was cited in June 2018 in Maryland Heights, Missouri, for operating a vehicle without proof of proper insurance. A judge issued an arrest warrant in December 2023, which remains outstanding.
Rosenblum argued that the police officer did not have probable cause to justify searching Nelly, who, according to Rosenblum, had not been notified of the warrant and knew nothing about it.
“I am 100% sure that this case will go nowhere,” the lawyer said. “And we will be calling for an investigation into the conduct of this officer.”
Kareem Kenkaide is Nelly's third biological child. He has two adult children, Chanelle and Cornell Haynes III, with his ex-girlfriend Channetta Valentine. He also adopted the two children of his late sister Jackie, who died of leukemia in 2005.
