We already knew Nelly and Ashanti had spun the block and were dating again but the rapper recently decided to confirm it. He did so during an interview with Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta’s Rasheeda and Kirk Frost.
Rasheeda jumped straight in to ask what the people wanted to know, which is whether or not they were back together. The rapper immediately began blushing, and paused before responding, “Yeah, yeah, we cool again.”
The 48-year-old continued, “I think it surprised both of us though. It wasn’t anything that was like planned. I think we both were pretty much doing what we do, but sometimes being separate, you understand one another more. See maybe what they see. You know? ‘Cause you know we all can be defensive sometimes in our relationships and we know we wrong, but we gonna stand on it. We all a victim to that.”
Rasheeda nodded in agreement before following up to ask if things felt good within the relationship the second time around.
“Yeah. I mean because it’s no pressure,” he replied. “You know, before I felt like both of us are doing what we’re doing career wise. And when you got so many people in the middle of it, it can be tough.”
The couple started dating in 2003 and were a fan favorite until they broke up around 2013. They both went on to date other people, with the rapper having a serious relationship with Shantel Jackson for seven years, but it seems he and the “Foolish” singer were meant to find their way back to one another.
Ashanti, 42, began dropping clues about the status of their relationship in December when she said they were getting along much better than they had in the past.
“What I will say is we’re in a better place. You know, cause before, it was like [mimics fighting]. But we’re cool now. Yeah, we have some conversations, you know. So it’s cool,” she said during an interview on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
The conversations clearly led to something more and sparked old feelings since the two are now an item again. It is pleasant to see but not surprising considering in 2014, Ashanti referred to Nelly as her first true love during an interview with Sway in the Morning.
Since rekindling their flame, the two have attended major events together, such as at Quality Control Music CEO Pierre “p” Thomas’s third annual birthday ball in Atlanta in June. They were also recently caught serenading one another to Usher’s classic hit “Nice and Slow.”
Sometimes we need to be different versions of ourselves for a relationship to function properly. Hopefully it works for these two this time around!