Ex Still Pining: Bunnie Xo's First Husband Speaks Out Post-Jelly Roll Split

When a marriage ends, you’d think that would be the end of the story. But in the case of Bunnie Xo, her past is proving harder to leave behind than most.

Just days after news broke that the 46-year-old podcast host and country music star Jelly Roll, 41, filed for divorce, Bunnie’s first husband Frankie Lombardo stepped into the spotlight with a confession that’s equal parts romantic and complicated. Lombardo, 43, revealed to Page Six on Friday, June 19 that he and Bunnie remain in daily contact—and he’s not ruling out a second chance at their relationship. The pair were married from 2009 to 2015, which means they’ve now been apart longer than they were together, yet Lombardo describes their bond as unshakeable.

“She was the only woman who ever broke my heart. I feel like there’s a lot of unfinished business between us,”Lombardo told the outlet, adding that he“wouldn’t say no”to reconciliation. What’s particularly telling is how he frames their current dynamic:“We have an interesting friendship. Sometimes she still talks to me like she’s my wife and reprimands me.”It’s a portrait of two people locked in an orbit neither seems willing to escape entirely. Bunnie, for her part, considers Lombardo her best friend—a relationship that clearly transcends the typical post-divorce boundary.

The timing of his comments feels deliberately positioned against Jelly Roll’s own statement about the split. The country star, who married Bunnie in August 2016 after a decade together, addressed the divorce head-on during a performance in Saratoga Springs, New York, emphasizing that infidelity played no role and that they remain best friends. Jelly Roll even closed with a direct message to his estranged wife:“Bunnie, I love you baby. Thank you for those 10 years. They were incredible.”It’s remarkably gracious, but it also underscores how openly affectionate everyone involved seems to be—which makes Lombardo’s lingering feelings less of a bombshell and more of a continuation of a pattern.

Bunnie herself explained the breakdown on her Stripped Down podcast on Thursday, June 18, laying blame on a pattern of emotional avoidance.“J and I have never really been good at having disagreements,”she said, noting that they stopped having difficult conversations about a year and a half ago. A Mother’s Day fight in May became the final straw, with Bunnie telling Jelly Roll to“file the f***ing divorce papers.”

What emerges from all of this is less a story about heartbreak and more a portrait of people who remain deeply connected even as their romantic relationships crumble. Lombardo’s willingness to be so public about his feelings for Bunnie raises an interesting question: Is this about genuine unfinished business, or is it about the difficulty of letting go when you’ve built something meaningful with someone, regardless of whether marriage was the right container for it?