Social Media Reacts as Nelly Tells Ashanti He Refuses to Change Baby Boy's Diapers

In the pair's reality show Nelly and Ashanti: We Belong Together -- which debuted on Peacock on June 26th -- Nelly gave some insight into show he parents the couple's newborn baby boy, Kareem Kenkaide Haynes. And viewers on X are not happy about it.

While the pair sit down to have a meal together on the show, the two talk about his upcoming tour and her concerns that he'll be gone for "a long time." After she tells him, "It's just, with a baby, it's a lot," he responds, "It's all you, I ain't gonna lie. I ain't got nothing for him."

A flashback clip then shows him tell his friends, "Until he can say 'I'm hungry,' until he can say 'I need to use the bathroom.'" He adds, "I told her, I said, 'Enjoy, because as soon as he started walking and talking, he's with the crew.'"

The show then cuts back to Ashanti and Nelly at the the table, where Ashanti brings up Nelly's tendency to sleep through the night when their newborn is crying.

"I trying to understand how is that you sleep through when he starts crying," Ashanti asks. "Do y'all really be up at night? I heard about it," Nelly responds.

"You know what it's absolutely ridiculous that you'll still be dead sleep and he'll be mad loud," she then tells him.

However, Nelly insists he doesn't "hear" the cries. "It's a gift I guess," he adds.

"That means get up, it's your turn to change him," she says, before Nelly then reminds his 44-year-old wife that he already told her he never planned on changing diapers.

"I'm going to take you back to this conversation we had before you kicked me under the table, I said, 'Baby I'll give you the world, I just ain't changing no diaper,'" he said.

Of course, every time someone in the limelight says something controversial, the internet has something to say about it -- and social media was quick to comment on this one.

One TikTok user called Ashanti "a married single mother," while another added, "It's giving he been told her he didn’t want anymore kids."

One social media user commented on the fact that Ashanti went back to Nelly after breaking up numerous times throughout their relationship. "You never go back ladies...," they wrote.

Over on The Shade Room, after they shared the footage, viewers continued to pile on the pair.

"Sometimes it’s better to just stay private! I liked the image they painted for us before the show!" read the most popular comment. "She waited all these years to have a baby by a teenager," wrote another.

Others defended Nelly, however, writing, "Some folks can't deal with new borns, the man clearly said he’ll hire as much help for her and that’s totally understandable, as long as you are making that possible and present, I am good."

Someone else added, "Yall love picking the “bad parts” of a show. The whole show he loves on her, attracted to her, respects her, spoils her, etc but yall picked this??? Lol. And it’s not even a problem, they like it."

Another wrote, "Honestly, he told her from jump that he was 50 and already been there, done that with his other kids. She still chose to marry him and have a baby knowing exactly how he was. I hate this for her."

The two rekindled their romance in 2023, 20 years after they first came together as a couple. They kept their first decade-long relationship on the down-low -- with Ashanti only confirming it in 2015 -- but they've been much more public this time around.

Ashanti and Nelly's baby boy, Kareem, was born on July 18, 2024.

Nelly has two other children from his ex, Channetta Valentine: a son named Cornell Haynes III (Tre) and a daughter named Chanelle (Nana). Nelly also has two adopted children from his stepsister Jaqueline Donahue, who died of leukemia on March 25, 2005.