Bunnie Xo will make her print debut next week with Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic. As the book's release date nears, the host of the Dumb Blonde podcast and wife of Jelly Roll is opening up about how she overcame a traumatic childhood to get where she is today.
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"I've always known that everything's going to work out no matter what," she told PEOPLE. "Even when people told me I was going to amount to nothing. There were so many people who wanted to see my downfall, and I was like, 'Just wait. My time will come.'"
It Was Hope That Kept Bunnie Xo Going When Times Got Rough
In her memoir, which comes out on Feb. 17, Bunnie discusses the trauma she experienced growing up. Her mother, who died in 2022, left her father, Bill, when she was just a baby. Though she loved her dad, Bunnie alleges that her stepmother was abusive.
"I don't think any child deserves to grow up around violence," she shared. "It shapes them into a different human."
Bunnie eventually left home at just 14. Until she met Jelly Roll at a show in Las Vegas in 2015, she had lived what seems like three lifetimes. The author had an abortion at 16, been arrested seven times, gone through two divorces, and was in an abusive relationship.
"I don't think I've ever stopped to feel sorry for myself," she shared. "I think I've just been like, 'This is what it is, and we're going to rock it.'"
Bunnie Opens Up About Her Past
Last week, Bunnie shared that while she worked with a ghostwriter to bring her story out into the world, she ended up rewriting the entire manuscript on her iPhone.
"Because if I was finally going to tell my truth, it had to be authentically me, and I owe that to you all," she said.
Bunnie also opened up about her career in sex work and creating content on OnlyFans. (She stopped in 2023.) She even tells the story of how she punched Jelly Roll after he confessed that he did not regret a lengthy affair that almost ended the couple's marriage.
"I really was just searching for the love of my father in so many men, and then it became a career. I thought I was taking my power back from the abuse that I'd been through, but really I was just in survival mode," she said.
But through it all, Bunnie has finally found peace.
"It doesn't matter what you've been through," she said. "It doesn't matter where you come from. Believe in yourself, and know that you can change your life at any time and at any age."
