Bunnie Xo defends Jelly Roll's weight loss as health-focused

Bunnie Xo, the wife of country-rap singer Jelly Roll, pushed back on social media comments that framed her husband’s recent weight loss as a purely aesthetic transformation, saying in a late September TikTok that his character and worth have not changed with his size. The video, posted Saturday, responded to messages telling her “your man is so hot now that he lost all that weight,” and urged followers to focus on health and heart rather than looks.

“Is he? Cause he’s always had the same face. He’s always had the same heart. He’s always had the same soul,” Bunnie said in the clip. “I think the most appropriate thing here to say is he looks so much more healthier now that he’s lost weight.” She added that people should “stop living in a Shallow Hal world” and warned that judging someone by weight could cause them to miss meaningful relationships. In her TikTok caption she wrote, “He’s been that dude. I’ll forever be cheering him on no matter what weight he is.”

Jelly Roll, whose legal name is Jason DeFord, has publicly documented a multiyear effort to improve his health. He has said he began the journey weighing 540 pounds and told a live audience in April that he had reached 357...