While you’ve been within the highlight so long as Ashanti and Nelly have, you be taught fairly shortly: everybody has an opinion. Whether or not it’s about your music, your strikes, or your relationships, the general public all the time feels entitled to a say.
However now, as newlyweds navigating marriage, parenthood, and life in full view of the world, Ashanti and Nelly have mastered the artwork of tuning all of it out.
“Me personally, I don’t care,” Ashanti informed theGrio when requested about how outdoors opinions have an effect on her. Her reply left Nelly, who responded “I don’t give a s–t” to the query, visibly stunned, sparking certainly one of many lighthearted exchanges that present simply how comfy they’ve change into of their dynamic.
“I might by no means name you a liar,” he mentioned with a chuckle. “I might simply say, at this second, all the pieces just isn’t being mentioned.”
Nonetheless, Ashanti specified that in relation to public criticism, whether or not it’s of her, her husband, or her relationship, she says: “I really feel like I don’t care to a sure extent, so long as we’re good. I don’t let it get to a degree the place it’s disrupting issues between us. I really feel prefer it’s actually vital for us to know what it’s between us and be sure that we’re good, as a result of you possibly can’t management what the general public goes to suppose and do.”
It’s the sort of peace that may solely come from development. And if there’s one factor Ashanti and Nelly have had, it’s time and house to develop.
The couple, who famously dated within the early 2000s earlier than calling it quits in 2013, rekindled their romance a decade later, a lot to the delight (and shock) of followers. However for Ashanti, it wasn’t some cosmic blueprint or grand manifestation like “Ciara’s prayers” that led them again to one another. It was merely destiny doing its factor.
“When issues are supposed to be, they are going to be,” Ashanti shared. “I don’t suppose we had been essentially in search of one another. I feel issues occurred organically. I imply, everybody talks about Verzuz, the hug, and all of that. So, I suppose a chance offered itself, after which issues sort of simply organically occurred after that.”
Nelly echoed that sentiment. 10 years in the past, he by no means imagined he’d discover himself married with a new child alongside the very lady he as soon as beloved and misplaced. Nonetheless, marriage had all the time been a part of his greater image—he simply wasn’t going to be pressured into it.
“Folks used to get on me on a regular basis, ‘You’re not married. You’re not married.’ And I might by no means let no one rush me into getting married, as a result of for me, it’s not about having been married. It’s about dying married,” he defined. “I feel we’re in a society the place we’ll give credit score to someone who was married and has been divorced, reasonably than to someone who’s by no means been married.”
That persistence paid off. Quick-forward to as we speak, and the 2 are usually not solely husband and spouse but additionally new mother and father to 11-month-old Kenkaide “KK” Haynes—Ashanti’s first little one and Nelly’s third. Nelly can also be father to son Cornell III (Tre), 25, and daughter Chanelle (Nana), 30. After shedding his sister Jackie Donahue to leukemia in 2005, he stepped as much as elevate her youngsters, Sydney and Shawn.
“While you make that vow, you gotta maintain that—” Nelly started, just for Ashanti to lovingly end his sentence: “Without end.”
Since reuniting, their love story has prompted a wave of thinkpieces. Do you have to spin the block? May your ex truly be the one? However Nelly shrugs off the theorizing.
“All of us are totally different. Everyone goes via totally different wavelengths and totally different challenges,” he mentioned. Reflecting on the time aside and the way they’ve advanced, he added, “I feel for us, I feel a few of the issues that we thought can be deal breakers, um, weren’t deal breakers in any respect. Our general view of each other and life as a complete was manner greater than what we thought was sort of petty.”
That deepened understanding is on full show of their new actuality collection, “We Belong Collectively.” The present gives followers a uncommon peek behind the scenes because the couple navigates marriage, parenthood, profession calls for, and mixing households.
And whereas a lot has been made about their resolution to not reveal child KK’s face onscreen, the guts of the present is about one thing deeper: two grown, absolutely established people studying how you can construct a life collectively.
Stream “Ashanti & Nelly: We Belong Collectively” now on Peacock.
