“Calls Me Mom By Choice” – Bunnie Xo Fires Back At Trolls Who Say She’s Not Her Daughter Bailee’s “Real Mom”

More of a mom than her biological mother.

Country music superstar Jelly Roll has long credited his 16-year old daughter, Bailee Ann, for turning his life around after he found out while incarcerated that he was going to be a father.

For nearly 9 years now, Jelly Roll and his wife, Bunnie Xo, have had custody of Bailee as her mother has battled addiction herself. And during his emotional testimony to Congress on the fentanyl epidemic, the singer spoke of the toll that it takes on him and Bunnie as parents:

“I have a 15 year old daughter whose mother is a drug addict. Every day I get to look in the eyes of a victim in my household of the effects of drugs. Every single day. And every single day I have to wonder if me and my wife, if today will be the day that I have to tell my daughter that her mother became part of the national statistic.”

During an emotional appearance on Bunnie’s Dumb Blonde podcast last year, Bailee opened up on her relationship with her biological mother, Felicia Beckwith, and the things she had been through that no child should have to deal with from a parent – like her mother asking her daughter to try drugs in the parking lot of a dollar store:

“We’re in the Dollar General…and she looks at me and she’s like, ‘Will you try it?’

And I’m like, ‘No, what the f*ck do you mean will I try it? I’m drunk as sh*t right now.’”

But Bailee says that her mom was manipulative, and eventually convinced her to try it:

“I ended up doing it because she’s, like I said, manipulative, and she did the mom thing.

And it’s weird to say ‘Did the mom thing,’ but that’s the best way I can put it in terms of how persuasive she was, how convincing it was. It’s not a mom thing, but it’s a my mom thing. She did the Felicia thing, and it worked.”

The teenager admits that she doesn’t have much recollection of the next couple of months, because she was “so f*cked up all of the time.”

“Whether it was weed, or I was drinking, or I was vaping or snorting Valiums or Xanax or whatever I was doing, I was never sober for a good 8-month period.”

So yeah, not much of a mother. And look, I get it, she’s struggling with addiction and needs help herself, but in the meantime she’s also a mother who’s supposed to be taking care of her daughter.

Luckily, that’s where Bunnie stepped in to fill the void.

Her and Jelly Roll convinced Bailee to take part in an intensive therapy to get sober, which upset her biological mother (what an insane sentence to even type about a parent), and since then Beckwith hasn’t been part of Bailee’s life.

So I think it’s fair to say that Bunnie has been more of a mother to Bailee than her biological mother has been. And on her TikTok recently, Bunnie set the record straight when a troll commented that Bailee was only her “stepdaughter,” while also taking aim at critics who make comments that she’s not Bailee’s “real mom.”

“She might be my bonus baby, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that I’m her mom too.

So many people try to come at me & say things like this and ‘you’re not her mom.’ I’ve sat quietly for almost 8 years protecting her “mom” & never speaking up about the human she is. You’re right – I’m NOT her mom & would never want to be. Her mom isn’t a mom.

I fiercely protect this little girl, I teach her how to be a woman, I have always picked up the pieces of her broken heart alongside her dad, every time her real mom shatters her heart.

I’m the one who she gets mad at because I tell her no & actually parent her. There is so much you don’t know about this relationship because I don’t “brag” about all the things I’ve done for her.

Bailee calls me mom by choice. I never asked her to call me that. But through this journey called life, no matter what – that’s my kid. Our kid. And nothing any of you say will ever change that.”

Amen.

Honestly, I never really get the comments trying to put down step parents, because those are people who CHOSE to step up and be parents even when they didn’t have to. And it sounds like Bunnie has been a lot more of a mom to Bailee than her biological mother ever has.

@ohheyitsbunnie

#baileeandbunnie

♬ Blurry – Puddle Of Mudd

And for no reason at all, here’s Brad Paisley’s “He Didn’t Have To Be.”

The post “Calls Me Mom By Choice” – Bunnie Xo Fires Back At Trolls Who Say She’s Not Her Daughter Bailee’s “Real Mom” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.