When Nelly showed up to be on Ja Rule’s team during the Verzuz Battle between Ja Rule and Fat Joe, he didn’t say a word to his ex Ashanti. “The crazy part is he didn’t say anything,” Ashanti said on Power 105.1, around 4:30 in the video. “First of all, I didn’t know he was going to be there. I told [Fat] Joe, ‘Joe, why you ain’t tell me he was [going to be there]?’ He’s like, ‘I know. It’s terrible… I couldn’t risk you…’ He’s like, ‘I couldn’t risk you not coming if you knew he was going to be there.’ I said, ‘Joe…'”
Ashanti added that the reunion was “very unexpected. I hadn’t seen him in like 6 years or more, spoken or seen, so it was a little awkward.” Nelly and Ashanti did hug on stage at one point. When host Angie Martinez brought up Fat Joe asking if there was a chance of a rekindling between Ashanti and Nelly, Ashanti stressed that the answer to that is “no.”
But Fat Joe isn’t giving up hope. He commented on the clip that Power 105.1 posted, “Never give up on love.”
Ashanti and Nelly began dating in 2003 and became one of hip hop’s biggest power couples. They were in a relationship for 11 years until 2014. It ultimately came down to trust between the couple, and Ashanti opened up about their split in 2015.
“I think sometimes when people have their own insecurities, it allows them to act out of character,” Ashanti said on The Meredith Vieira Show. “I’ve been betrayed. You just have to grow. You have to grow up. You have to accept responsibility for the things that you do. I’m not a big fan of people being cowards.”
Ashanti previously talked about seeing her ex again at the Verzuz Battle on The Tamron Hall Show. “When I saw him kind of coming across the stage, I was just like, ‘Oh…’ and it was so weird because we haven’t seen or spoken to each other for over six years… so it was a weird feeling,” she said.
