Jelly Roll is an open book when it comes to his life story, but this time he’s speaking about his daughter, Bailee.
The 40-year-old country star — whose real name is Jason Bradley DeFord — appeared as a guest on the Tuesday, March 25 episode of The Pivot podcast. He mentioned the reported arrest of Felicia A. Beckwith, the biological mother of his 16-year-old daughter, during the episode.
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“My child’s mother has struggled with drug addiction since my daughter’s been born, pretty much. The addict is not the victim in that situation. The family is,” the star told listeners before he recalled how Beckwith’s February arrest affected Bailee and started to cry.
“I’ve seen the effect that it’s had on her. I’ve got a 16, almost 17-year-old upstairs, and I’ve seen the effect that it’s had — it’s truly affected her life,” revealed the “I Am Not Okay” rapper.
“This is a 16, 17-year-old that knows her mother is a drug addict,” noted the CMT Award winner and added, “but like, her having to see the mugshot of her mother with just meth ate up on her face.”
The songwriter continued to speak on how he sympathized with his teen daughter. “I watched her go through it all over again,” he told listeners and explained that he’s “done a lot of therapy” and “a lot of work” to get to a point where he can “just pray about it and move on.” He followed the statement up by telling the podcast that he understood his daughter doesn’t “have any of [the] tools” he does and that she is “still gaining those tools.”
In addition to Bailee, Jelly Roll is father to his son from a previous relationship, Noah “Buddy” DeFord, who was born in 2016. The rapper and his current wife, Bunnie XO, got married in 2017 and share full custody of the children.
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.
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