Nelly and Ashanti’s reunion took a lot of people – including them – by surprise.
The two stars were reported to have reconciled earlier this year, a decade after they first ended their relationship, but the “Hot In Here” hitmaker insisted getting back together hadn’t been “planned” by either of them.
“Yeah, we cool again,” Nelly told “Love and Hip Hop” stars Rasheeda and Kirk Frost in an interview. “I think it surprised both of us though. It wasn’t anything that … was planned.”
The 48-year-old star says spending so long apart from one another has been helpful with their reunion because the distance allowed them to “understand” each other and their relationship better.
“I think we both were pretty much doing what we do, but sometimes being separate you understand one another more. You be like, ‘Yo, let me see exactly what they see.’ You know, because we all can be defensive sometimes in our own relationships. We know we wrong, but we going to stand on it. But we all a victim to that,” he explained.
The couple’s relationship “feels good now” because there is “no pressure” on either of them.
“Before I felt like both of us were doing what we were doing before career-wise, and when you got so many people in the middle of it, it can be tough,” Nelly added.
Nelly and Ashanti, 42, sparked rumors they were back together after being spotted in Las Vegas in March, and a week later they attended a 40th birthday party for businessman Jon Schwartz together.
In December of 2022, the “Foolish” singer appeared on stage with Nelly during Power 98.3 and 96.1’s Under the Mistletoe concert. Following the show, Ashanti admitted she was surprised by the response from fans wanting the former flames to get back together.
“My reaction was, ‘wow.’ It was a lot of comments and a lot of people wanting that,” she told host Andy Cohen on “Watch What Happens Live.”
Although she stayed coy over whether or not they would get back together, she did admit they were in a much “better place” than they were when they broke up.
“What I will say is we’re in a better place… We’re cool now. We had some conversations, so it’s cool,” she added.
