R&B legends Ashanti and Nelly welcome first baby together months after secret wedding

Noughties R&B legends Ashanti and Nelly have shared some happy news just months after they were secretly married.

Ashanti and Nelly’s latest collaboration has arrived — and it’s their cutest yet.

The longtime couple welcomed their first baby together on July 18, Ashanti’s rep confirmed to People on Wednesday.

The “proud and happy parents are so in love” with son Kareem Kenkaide Hayes, telling Entertainment Tonight that Nelly picked the name “with a lot of pride.”

The new mum gushed, “Having all of us in the delivery room and seeing his face for the first time, I cried it was just so emotional and spiritual at the same time. Having a vision of this moment for so long … it was such an electrifying feeling.”

Ashanti and Nelly have welcomed their first child together. Picture: Theo Wargo/Getty Images

Ashanti shared a postpartum mirror selfie with her Instagram followers on Friday.

“Funny how life’s plans aren’t…always on time.. lol,” she wrote, “I’ve been waiting to be a mum for a long time now but nothing could prepare me for EVERYTHING motherhood brings! This is what postpartum looks like. … I’m so proud of my body for giving me my baby, baby, baby, baby, baby.

Ashanti and Nelly, who have worked together on Body on Me, This Lil’ Game We Play and more songs, met in 2003 at a Grammy Awards press conference.

The duo dated for a decade before calling it quits in 2013, only to spark speculation last year that they had rekindled their romance.

“I’ve been waiting to be a mum for a long time now,” Ashanti captioned this mirror selfie after giving birth.

Nelly, 49, confirmed in September 2023 that he was dating Ashanti, 43, in a reconciliation that was not “planned” and “surprised” them both.

“We both were pretty much doing what we do, but sometimes being separate you understand one another more,” he told Love & Hip Hop stars Rasheeda and Kirk Frost at the time, insisting they were not putting “pressure” on themselves.

A report surfaced three months later that the couple had a baby on the way, but they did not comment on the news until April.

The Foolish singer revealed to Essence that she was expecting — and engaged.

“This new year of my life is such a blessing full of love, hope and anticipation,” Ashanti, who reportedly wed Nelly in secret in December 2023, gushed. “Motherhood is something that I have looked forward to.”

While the announcement marked Ashanti’s first pregnancy, Nelly was already a father when the news broke.

The singers met in 2003 at a Grammy Awards press conference. Picture: Paul Morigi/Getty Images

The pair, seen here in 2012, dated for a decade before calling it quits in 2013. Picture: Rick Diamond/Getty Images

Not only did the Ride Wit Me rapper welcome son Cornell and daughter Chanelle in previous relationships, but he is also the adoptive dad of his late stepsister Jacqueline “Jackie” Donahue’s two kids, Sydney and Lil’ Shawn.

Nelly, whose real name is Cornell Iral Haynes Jr., called the decision a “no-brainer” during a Tamron Hall Show interview in September 2020, explaining that family “pick[s] up the pieces.”

The Hot in Herre performer then made headlines in November 2023 when he was asked about having another baby with Ashanti and quipped, “I’m on it.”

The What’s Luv? singer, for her part, told People the previous year about her desire to “slow down” and start a family.

This article originally appeared in Page Six and was reproduced with permission