Nelly wants fans to know he’s not avoiding diaper duty. 

Earlie this year, the 50-year-old rapper set off a storm online when he joked on his Peacock reality series Nelly & Ashanti: We Belong Together about skipping out on late-night feedings and diaper changes for his infant son with wife Ashanti. The comments quickly turned into a wider debate, and now, he’s setting the record straight.

“Excuse me, I’ve always changed diapers,” Nelly told People Magazine in a recent interview. “I think people took a joke and made it into a debate.”

Nelly and Ashanti welcomed their first child together, Kareem Kenkaide “KK” Haynes, in July 2024. While fans may have run with his on-screen comments, the artist admitted the way the moment was shown could have been misleading.

“It was on our show, so if it didn’t come off as a joke, then we are the ones to look at for that,” he said. “But yeah, of course I’ve changed diapers.”

He explained further that the intention wasn’t to say he wouldn’t help, but rather that the couple has extra hands available. “My thought process wasn’t like, ‘Yo, I’m not changing the diaper.’ Our conversation was like, ‘Listen, I’ll do whatever needs to be done, but what I’m saying is that I’m giving you the best help I can get with me and a 24-hour nanny.’ See, everybody forgets that part.”

That “24-hour nanny” happens to be Ashanti’s cousin, Bri, who Nelly says deserves credit for handling much of the daily grind. “If anybody has changed the most diapers out of any one of us, it’s Bri,” he noted.

This isn’t Nelly’s first time raising kids. He’s dad to two adult children with ex-girlfriend Channetta Valentine and also adopted his late sister Jackie Donahue’s two children after her passing. But baby KK marks a new chapter for the two popular entertainers.

So far, the couple has kept their son out of the public eye. “I haven’t even posted him on Instagram or anything like that,” Ashanti shared at the 2025 American Black Film Festival. “I just feel like those moments are very sacred to me, and we’ll make the decision on when he’s ready to pop out.”

Ashanti and Nelly rekindled their romance after more than a decade apart. In 2023, the couple married and are now parents to a one-year-old.