‘Judged More by Christians Than Anything’—Jelly Roll’s Wife Addresses Faith Controversy After Grammys

Jelly Roll Alisa DeFord Grammys
(L) Jelly Roll giving his acceptance speech at the 2026 Grammy Awards—Screengrab via YouTube / Recording Academy / GRAMMYs. (R) Alisa DeFord defending her husband. Screengrab YouTube / Dumb Blonde Podcast

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“When I’ve been seeing videos where people are, one, saying that my husband is a performative Christian,” she continued. Using the f-word and c-word to describe one woman, DeFord said, “She’s like, ‘Do you guys want to know what kind of Christian Jelly Roll is? For those of you who don’t know, it’s a performative Christian.’”

RELATED: ‘There Is a Revival Happening’—Jelly Roll Encourages People To Live Out Their Faith While Accepting Dove Award for Song of the Year

“It’s like first of all, if I wasn’t trying to walk with God, I would find you and slap the s*** out of you, lady, ’cause your voice—the pitch was just so much—it was like nails on a chalkboard. But I’m trying to turn the other cheek and be better,” DeFord said.

DeFord then asked her co-hosts, “In what world is it okay to ever question somebody’s walk with God?”

“My husband’s not sitting there saying, ‘You need to go to church. You need to donate to this freaking congregation. You need to donate to this church,’” she said. “He’s not saying that. I could understand if he was like, ‘You need to do this. This is what you need to do.’ He’s literally not even saying anything. He’s not asking for anything.”

“All he’s saying is, ‘Hey, Jesus is for everybody. Jesus does not belong to one political party. Jesus loves you,’ and the internet lost their minds,” DeFord stated.

DeFord blasted people for making money off critical videos they created about Jelly Roll, knowing his name would bring views.

“How about donate that money to a good cause that you’re making off of talking s*** about my husband?” she said. “You would never do that because, why would you?”

“The only reason why you’re even questioning my husband’s faith,” said DeFord, “is not because you genuinely care. It’s because you want to make money off of his name and you want the views.”

“Anything that has to do with me or my husband is going to get views right now because it’s so controversial,” DeFord explained. “My husband and I have been very open and honest about our walk with God.”

Jelly Roll’s Wife Talks About Her Faith Journey

Six months ago, DeFord shared that she stepped away from occult practices and has relied more on her faith in Jesus during her IVF journey.

“When it comes to like spells and all the dark stuff, I don’t want anything to do with it anymore. I rebuke it,” she said.

“I stopped getting spell work done, and I started leaning back into my faith more as I was going through this IVF journey because it really opened up my eyes,” DeFord said. “Something about this IVF journey really made me want to lean on God and made me really see that creating a child is such a beautiful, mysterious, ethereal moment, and it just really pointed out like a lot of the dark aspects of my life.”

RELATED: Brandon Lake and Jelly Roll Win Song of the Year at the K-LOVE Fan Awards

DeFord also addressed rumors that she was a witch.

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Jesse T. Jackson
Jesse is the Senior Content Editor for ChurchLeaders and Site Manager for ChristianNewsNow. An undeserving husband to a beautiful wife, and a father to 4 beautiful children. He is currently a church elder in training, a growth group leader, and is a member of University Baptist Church in Beavercreek, Ohio. Follow him on twitter here (https://twitter.com/jessetjackson). Accredited member of the Evangelical Press Association.

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