Ashanti used her Instagram to announce to the world that she is expecting her first child. The Instagram story showed Ashanti getting ready for a performance. The crowd is there and cheering for the show to start.
Ashanti’s handler steps into the dressing room and asks if she’s ready. Her mother then steps into the dressing room and asks how long it’s going to take for her to be ready.
Ashanti steps out then and announces that she’s going to need nine months. She also captioned the story with the words, “Baby baby baby baby….”
Ashanti spoke with Essence about the big news. She said that she’d been waiting for motherhood for a long time.
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Now that it’s finally happened, she’s excited to share the experience with her family, fans, and friends. She said that everyone has been so supportive of her and her career over the years, so sharing this with everyone was just something special she could do in return.
The Instagram story also served as an announcement that she and her boyfriend, Nelly, are co-owners of a company called Proov. It’s a diagnostics company that sells at-home tests that couples can use to test certain types of fertility problems.
The couple said they wanted to support a way of helping couples who are struggling to have children that didn’t require them to spend a lot of money. The kits are inexpensive and can help couples understand what might be going wrong.
The Pregnancy Wasn’t the Only Announcement
If that wasn’t enough good news, Ashanti also shared with Essence that she and Nelly are engaged. It’s been a long time coming for the couple.
Nelly and Ashanti first started dating in 2003. They were together for a decade before breaking up in 2013.
Nelly said the biggest reason why they broke up was their careers. It pulled them away from each other and allowed trust issues to settle in.
Fans started noticing that Nelly and Ashanti were spending time together again in 2023. They had a few performances together, and they were sometimes openly flirting with each other while performing.
Nelly said that they’re both older now and they’re approaching love a lot differently than they did before. Ashanti said that neither of them expected to get back together, but a moment in 2021 told her maybe things weren’t completely over.
She said that, at the time, she hadn’t seen or spoken to Nelly since they had broken up. She also had no idea that he was going to be at a Verzuz event between Fat Joe and Ja Rule, which she was also attending.
Ashanti said that he got on stage with them, and she saw his eyes get big, and then they hugged. They started talking again after that.
Now, while this is Ashanti’s first child, it will be Nelly’s fifth child. He already has children, Chanelle and Cornell Haynes III. He also adopted his sister’s children, Shawn and Sydney Thomas, after she passed away from leukemia.
With a baby and a wedding on the way, Ashanti is feeling blessed and grateful.
