Ashanti Announces She Is Pregnant With Her First Baby & Engaged To Nelly

Ashanti is officially going to be a mom. After months of speculation, the singer has joyfully confirmed the happy news. And what’s more, Ashanti announced that she and Nelly, whom she has been connected to on and off for more than two decades, are engaged.

The “Falling For You” singer confirmed in a video released on Instagram on Wednesday that she is, indeed, pregnant. The video sees the singer’s mom Tina Douglas checking on her backstage ahead of a concert, calling out to her daughter to ask, “How much time do you need?” Ashanti steps out with a pregnancy test and says, “Uh, I'm gonna need about nine months.” Record scratch in the best possible way!

The 43-year-old singer also shared her pregnancy news with media outlet Essence, going on to add that she and rapper Nelly are engaged. “This new year of my life is such a blessing full of love, hope and anticipation,” Ashanti told Essence. “Motherhood is something that I have looked forward to, and sharing this with my family, fiancé and loyal fans, who have been so supportive of my career, is an amazing experience.”

This is Ashanti’s first baby, while Nelly is dad to 30-year-old daughter Chanelle and 25-year-old son Cornell Hayes III with ex Chanetta Valentine, as well as being an adoptive dad to his late sister Jackie Donahue’s children Shawn and Sydney Thomas after she passed away in 2005.

Nelly and Ashanti have a long and storied history together, first meeting back in 2003 and dating on and off for a decade, the pair split in 2013 and didn’t publicly reconnect again until 2022 when they took to the stage to perform their song “Body On Me” at thePower 98.3 and 96.1’s Under the Mistletoe concert. Ashanti told Andy Cohen at the time that she was “surprised” by the response from fans. “My reaction was wow. It was a lot of comments and a lot of people wanting that,” Ashanti told Cohen on Watch What Happens Live in 2022. “What I will say is we’re in a better place. You know, cause before, it was like [mimics fighting]. But we’re cool now. Yeah, we have some conversations, you know. So it’s cool.”

They were more than cool, apparently. By 2023, Ashanti and Nelly were officially back together, and now they are expecting their first baby together. While they didn’t share the baby’s sex or due date, it’s enough for now to know it’s happening.