Ashanti and Nelly confirmed their relationship with a statement accessory at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. The singer—who presented an award at the ceremony with French Montana—walked the pink carpet conspicuously holding a clutch with a throwback photo of the pair printed on the side.
“We’re in a great place,” Ashanti said when asked about the reunion. “I think it’s pretty obvious. Yeah, we’re together.”
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY – SEPTEMBER 12: Ashanti attends the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center on September 12, 2023 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
The rapper leaked the good news first during an appearance on the Philo show Boss Moves with Rasheeda on September 12, just hours before the VMAs.
“Yeah, we’re cool again,” the rapper told host Rasheeda Frost and her husband. “I think it surprised both of us, though. It wasn’t anything that was like, I don’t think, planned. I think we both was pretty much doing what we do.”
He elaborated, “But sometimes being separate, you understand one another more, where you could be like, ‘Well, yo, let me exactly see, maybe, what they see.’ ‘Cause you know we all can be defensive sometimes in our own relationships. And we know we’re wrong, but we’re going to stand on it, you what I mean?”
Ashanti, 42, and Nelly, 48, originally started dating in 2003 and remained together for nearly a decade before calling it quits in 2013. In 2010, Nelly admitted he wasn’t ready to get married—a blow that Ashanti would later refer to as a “betrayal.” Luckily, Verzus led the pair to unexpectedly hug and reunite during a 2023 DJ battle between Fat Joe and Ja Rule.
