The podcast host's book 'Stripped Down' hits shelves on Tuesday, Feb. 17
Bunnie Xo only has eyes for her husband.
In this week's issue of PEOPLE, the podcast host and author — whose new memoir Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic hits shelves Feb. 17 — opens up about how husband Jelly Roll's recent 300-lb. weight loss has changed the country star.
“We’re watching a grown man live his life to the fullest for the first time,” Bunnie, 46, tells PEOPLE of the Grammy winner. "He doesn't have that extra weight on him, and he is literally just the happiest little bumblebee that is just flying through the universe right now, and he's doing everything that he hasn't gotten to do, and he's kicking ass. I can't wait to see how it's going to be in another 10 years, especially now with his newfound freedom."
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Adds the Dumbe Blonde host: “He was beautiful before, but now I catch myself drooling looking at him; he looks so good!”
In Stripped Down, Bunnie (whose real name is Alisa DeFord) writes about making peace with her painful childhood and turbulent young adulthood — which included domestic violence, sexual assault, drug addiction and thoughts of suicide — and finding happiness with Jelly, 41. But their happy life was hard-won. In the memoir, she also reflects on his 2018 affair that nearly ended their marriage.
For more on Bunnie Xo, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.
"Everybody deserves a second chance," she says of Jelly, whom she married in 2016 before renewing their vows in 2023.
Though all of their ups and downs, Bunnie says she and Jelly have grown together.
“Granted, we were both assholes when we first got together, but we have evolved together. . . . [When we met] he was going down a path of drugs. I was coming out of a domestic-violence relationship. I had so much baggage, so much toxicity; he had never been in a real relationship," she says. "We had to learn together.”
Stripped Down by Bunnie XO will hit shelves on Feb. 17 and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.
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