Nelly and Ashanti’s Relationship Timeline

Nelly and Ashanti have been through a lot together since they first met — except during the decade or so they went their separate ways.

In the early aughts, the couple were R&B royalty. They held court on the Billboard charts and shared a romance that had fans speculating about their happily ever after.

But in the 2010s, despite their bond, the relationship didn’t work out.

Ashanti and Nelly at 3rd Annual Birthday Ball for Quality Control CEO Pierre “P” Thomas on June 08, 2023 in Atlanta, GA.Paras Griffin / Getty Images

Until time healed the rift.

After a long break and a lot of personal growth, the entertainers found each other again, swapped vows in secret and even welcomed their first child together. Now they’re taking another big step, all the way to reality TV.

Mark the release of their new eight-episode Peacock docuseries, “Nelly & Ashanti: We Belong Together,” with a look back at the timeline of their love story. (Peacock is owned by NBCUniversal, TODAY’s parent company).

2003: How Nelly met Ashanti

Ahead of the 45th Grammy Awards, where both Nelly and Ashanti were scheduled to perform, they attended the Recording Academy’s nominations announcement — separately. It was January of 2003, and moments before they learned they were both nominees that year, they met one another for the first time.

That’s when Nelly, at peak fame with his “Hot in Herre” single, made a memorable move.

“The first time I met Nelly, he asked me for my autograph,” Ashanti later recalled during a 2011 episode of VH1’s “Behind the Music.” “I think he was being sarcastic, and I remember writing it down on the program.”

Romance rumors started then and there, but Ashanti said fans jumped to conclusions too soon, adding, “For the record, it took him a long time to get my number.”

2005: Mixed messages

Nelly stood by Ashanti’s side at her surprise birthday party on Oct. 13, 2005, in New York City. Johnny Nunez / WireImage

Nelly and Ashanti seemed tight throughout 2004 and 2005, having made public appearances side-by-side, and even cuddling up close at Ashanti’s 25th birthday bash on Oct. 13, 2005, at Glo Nightclub in New York City.

But even though their bond appeared undeniable by that point, that same year, Ashanti played coy, telling People magazine they just “went out,” and weren’t really “boyfriend and girlfriend.”

What was clear was that whatever they were to one another, it wasn’t something they were ready to define for the rest of the world.

2008: Good friends thinking about marriage

While these days, Nelly and Ashanti no longer deny those early years were, in fact, a real romantic relationship, back in 2008, they still weren’t ready to say it outright.

“Me and Nelly, we’re good friends,” Ashanti told People in another interview. “We kick it — hang out a lot. The industry is very hard, so it’s good to have fun and lighten it up.”

But when the interviewer asked if she was engaged to her pal, the “Foolish” singer said that they weren’t. Not yet.

“But definitely in the future,” Ashanti answered with a laugh.

2009: The “Body On Me” music video

Ashanti and Nelly perform his single, “Body On Me,” during a visit to “The Tonight Show.” Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank / Getty Images

Ashanti joined Nelly for a track on his fifth studio album, “Brass Knuckles.” In December of 2009, they released a music video for the steamy single, “Body On Me.”

Their seductive body language and eye contact while singing to one another in the clip seemed to say all the things about their partnership they’d long avoided saying themselves.

2013: The breakup

Ashanti and Nelly on Oct. 22, 2012 in NYC.Theo Wargo / WireImage

Rumors about a breakup were swirling around the pair shortly after the release of that music video. However, in 2010, they were spotted out together again, at T.I. and Tiny’s wedding.

When asked about their on-and-off status after that, Nelly told Complex, “We never admitted that we were together or back together or separated, but we heard that. Only thing we ever said was we friends, and it’s the same way now.”

But by 2013, it was over for the pair, and like the rest of their relationship, they kept the particulars under wraps.

2021: A surprise reunion at Verzuz

During their years apart, Nelly and Ashanti didn’t have any contact at all, she told Andy Cohen on an episode of “Watch What Happens Live.”

In fact, in a 2025 chat with Access Hollywood, Ashanti said they “kind of hated each other” after the break.

She went on to tell Angie Martinez, of the “IRL” podcast, “If someone had said, ‘Bet everything that you and Nelly will be back together,’” she would have responded, “Take it all. That ain’t never going to happen.”

But something happened to soften the rift in the fall of 2021. They had an unexpected reunion at Verzuz, when Ja Rule and Fat Joe brought them (and many others) on stage.

“I had somebody with me when I went to Verzuz,” Nelly later explained in an interview for “The Bootleg Kev Podcast.” “I didn’t want it tense. We didn’t even talk. I just went over, got a hug, break the ice and boom. And we didn’t talk for probably another eight to nine months to a year. We didn’t have a conversation. That was that.”

But he added, “Everything happens for a reason.”

2022: They’re back together and ‘in a better place’

In December 2022, after the fan response to seeing Nelly and Ashanti together at Verzuz and then watching them share the stage a year later for a performance of “Body On Me” for Power 98.3, “Watch What Happens Live” host Andy Cohen told Ashanti, “People online want you and Nelly to get back together, that’s all I’m saying.”

She acknowledged the public excitement, and admitted, “What I will say is we’re in a better place. You know, ’cause before, it was (bad). But we’re cool now. Yeah, we have some conversations, you know. So it’s cool.”

In September 2023, Nelly chimed in on the topic when he visited “Boss Moves With Rasheeda,” and agreed, “Yeah, we cool again.”

He added, “I think it surprised both of us though. It wasn’t anything that I don’t think was planned.”

Nelly explained how the romance felt different this time around — like how there was “no pressure.”

“Sometimes being separate you understand one another more,” Nelly said. “You could be like, ‘Yo, let me see exactly what they see.’ You know, because we all can be defensive sometimes in our own relationships. And we know we wrong but we going to stand on it. But we all a victim to that.”

2023: Proposal and “I dos”

Once they were back together, things moved fast for the couple, and in 2023, Nelly proposed.

While Ashanti sensed it might happen soon, given that they knew something the rest of the world didn’t know yet — that a baby was on the way for the pair — her “jaw hit the floor” when he asked, all the same.

Ashanti and Nelly share a stage once again, this time in Miami, Florida on February 2, 2024.Alexander Tamargo / Getty Images

“I had on his t-shirt and boxers; I was in the bed,” Ashanti told Tamron Hall. “It was so not cute; hair in a bun. You know what I mean? But it was us. We were home.”

And she was, briefly, too stunned to respond.

“He was like, ‘Well, are you going to answer?’” she recalled. “He literally said, ‘Well, yes or no?’ But it was magical, it was beautiful. … Everything happens in God’s divine timing.”

By December of that year, they were married.

2024: It’s a boy!

On July 18, the newlyweds welcomed Kareem Kenkaide Haynes, otherwise known as KK, to their family.

“He’s my best friend,” Ashanti of the little one during a 2025 stop by Jenna & Friends. “He’s like the sweetest little angel baby. He just laughs and smiles all day. I couldn’t even imagine my life without him now. I’m so happy.”

But what she can imagine, is expanding their family even further. Eventually.

“I definitely want more kids, but maybe not right this second,” she laughed.