Honestly, if you only know Bunnie XO as the glamorous woman standing next to country superstar Jelly Roll on red carpets, you’re missing the wildest part of the story. Most people see the blonde hair, the designer outfits, and the "Dumb Blonde" podcast empire and assume she just got lucky.
She didn't.
Before the CMA awards and the sold-out arenas, Bunnie XO was a sex worker in Las Vegas. And she doesn't hide it. She’s probably the most transparent person in the industry right now, which is exactly why fans are so obsessed with her. But there’s a massive gap between the "high-end escort" headlines and what her life actually looked like back then.
Why Bunnie XO Still Matters (And Why She’s So Open)
People love a redemption arc, but Bunnie doesn't really view her past as something she needs to be "redeemed" from. To her, it was a business. A way to survive.
She was working as a high-end escort in Vegas when she first met a broke, struggling artist named Jason DeFord (the world now knows him as Jelly Roll) in 2015. At the time, she was the one with the money. Jelly Roll has joked in interviews that he was living out of a '96 van and making maybe $100 a night, while Bunnie was pulling in $30,000 to $40,000 a night from sugar daddies and CEOs.
It was a total role reversal.
She wasn't just "some girl." She was a powerhouse in an industry that most people are terrified to talk about. She has been very blunt about the fact that she had sugar daddies who gifted her half a million dollars, bought her cars, and draped her in diamonds.
But it wasn't all glitter.
Behind the luxury was a woman who had dealt with massive trauma, including an abusive four-year relationship and a childhood that she’s described as incredibly difficult. She used the adult industry as a tool to gain independence.
The Transition Out of the Lifestyle
A lot of people ask: "If she was making millions, why did she stop?"
It wasn't because of Jelly Roll. He actually never asked her to quit. He’s gone on record saying he respected her hustle because he came from a background of selling drugs—they both knew what it meant to survive on the fringes of the law.
The real turning point was Bailee, Jelly Roll’s daughter.
When the couple got custody of Bailee, Bunnie’s perspective shifted. She’s mentioned that she didn’t want the little girl who stole her heart to grow up thinking she ever had to sell her body to get by. That’s a heavy realization. She wanted to build a legacy that was entirely her own, without the "client" side of things.
- 2018: She launched the Bunnie XO brand and the Dumb Blonde podcast.
- 2020: She officially retired from seeing clients and moved her business to OnlyFans.
- 2023: She shut down her OnlyFans entirely to focus on her mainstream media empire.
Bunnie XO: What Really Happened with the OnlyFans Exit
When she finally closed her OnlyFans in March 2023, the internet had a meltdown. People assumed she was "cleaning up" her image for Nashville's conservative country music scene.
Bunnie, being Bunnie, shut that down immediately.
She famously joked on Facebook that she "didn't want to be the only wife in the country music scene whose butthole was on the internet." Typical Bunnie. But the deeper truth was that she was making so much money from her podcast and her own brands that she simply didn't need it anymore.
She felt she had "made it back 10-fold" by having faith and pivoting.
The Business of Being "Dumb Blonde"
The transition from being a Bunnie XO sex worker to a mainstream mogul is a masterclass in personal branding. She took the very labels people used to insult her—"dumb," "blonde," "hooker"—and turned them into a multimillion-dollar production company.
Her podcast isn't just fluff. She interviews everyone from Machine Gun Kelly to Dr. Tara (an intimacy expert), tackling topics like addiction, recovery, and trauma. She uses her history to create a safe space for others who have "messy" pasts.
Actionable Insights from Bunnie's Journey
If there's anything to learn from Bunnie's path, it's these three things:
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- Own your narrative. If you don't tell your story, someone else will weaponize it against you. By being the first to say "Yeah, I was an escort," she took the power away from the tabloids.
- Independence is a mindset. Even after marrying a wealthy musician, she refused to give up her financial independence. She built her own platform with the money she earned herself.
- Pivot when the "Why" changes. She didn't quit because she was ashamed; she quit because her goals (motherhood and mainstream media) no longer aligned with her old career.
Bunnie XO is a reminder that where you start has zero reflection on where you can end up. She went from the Las Vegas strip to the front row of the Grand Ole Opry, and she did it without apologizing for a single second of the journey.
To really understand her, you have to look at the work she’s doing now—advocating for women, discussing mental health, and showing that a "white trash love story" can actually be the most stable thing in Hollywood.
If you want to follow her current moves, keep an eye on her podcast "Dumb Blonde" or her social media, where she continues to document her IVF journey and her life on the farm. She’s living proof that life doesn’t have to be linear to be successful.