Ashanti and Nelly. Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for E11EVEN
Pregnant Ashanti and boyfriend Nelly know how to make sweet music together.
Ashanti, 43, and Nelly, 49, teamed up for a joint musical performance at E11EVEN Miami’s 10th anniversary party on Friday, February 2. The couple stayed close throughout the set, in which they wore coordinating shades.
Nelly sported a white shirt with purple slacks and a heavy diamond chain, while Ashanti opted for a pink Balenciaga jersey dress that concealed her baby bump and matched her ankle boots and sunglasses. The couple, who also posed together on the red carpet on Friday, then joined rapper Fat Joe for a second performance.
Ahead of Friday’s show, Ashanti teased her excitement to hit the stage.
Ashanti and Nelly found their way back to each other in 2023 after a series of ups and downs. The twosome sparked romance speculation in early 2003 after connecting at a Grammys event. Although they played coy about their status for years, Ashanti confirmed in March 2015 that they were a couple until 2013. Following […]
“Miami!!!!! It’s up tonight!!!! Me and @nelly @11miami 10 year anniversary celebration!!!! See you there!!! 😜😜,” she wrote via Instagram.
The venue replied, “Time for an unforgettable night 🌟.”
Ashanti and Nelly. Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for E11EVEN
Ashanti and Nelly initially dated on and off between 2003 and 2013 after meeting at a Grammy Awards press conference. Ten years later, they sparked reunion speculation when they were spotted holding hands in April 2023.
“Yeah, we cool again,” Nelly said during a September 2023 appearance on the “Boss Moves with Rasheeda” podcast. “I think it surprised both of us though. It wasn’t anything that I don’t think was planned.”
Three months later, Us Weekly broke the news that Ashanti is pregnant with their first baby. (Nelly also shares daughter Chanelle, 29, and son Cornell Haynes III, 24, with ex Channetta Valentine.)
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Neither Ashanti nor Nelly have further discussed her pregnancy, but Fat Joe, 53, is thrilled for the couple.
“So the other day Ashanti FaceTimes me with Nelly,” Fat Joe recalled during a January Instagram Live session. “I immediately tell them I need 10 percent of this kid because if it wasn’t for Verzuz when I brought Nelly out, me against Ja Rule, that’s when they saw each other and that energy connected again.”
Nelly and Ashanti. Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for E11EVEN
Fat Joe invited Ashanti to perform their 2002 duet, “What’s Luv?” at the 2021 concert. Nelly had performed his own set before hugging his then-ex backstage.
“You know what, the crazy part is he didn’t say anything,” Ashanti said during a November 2021 interview on The Angie Martinez Show. “First of all, I didn’t know he was going to be there. I told Joe, like, ‘Joe, why you ain’t tell me he was gonna be there?’ He was like, ‘Sis, I know, it’s terrible.’ He was like, ‘I couldn’t risk you not coming if you knew he was going to be there.’”