Nelly gushes over 'beautiful' girlfriend Ashanti
Nelly has confirmed his reunion with Ashanti with a gushing birthday tribute.
![Nelly and Ashanti are really back together after a decade apart](https://images.bangpremier.com/articleimage/2023_05_04__bsalscplg_1683178929cropped1928x1253.webp)
Nelly has gushed over Ashanti on her 43rd birthday after rekindling their romance.
The 48-year-old rapper and the 'Foolish' singer were reported to have reconciled earlier this year, a decade after they first ended their relationship, and the pair have now made their reunion Instagram official.
Nelly captioned an Instagram video montage of the pair over the years: “One time for the birthday girl.
“Such a beautiful, incredible person inside and out and one of the hardest working women. I know.. @ashanti. Enjoy your day Ma you look awesome!!!! Happy Birthday Love ya!!!! (sic)"
The 'Hot In Herre' hitmaker recently insisted getting back together hadn't been "planned" by either of them and took them both by surprise.
Nelly told 'Love and Hip Hop' stars Rasheeda and Kirk Frost in an interview last month: “Yeah, we cool again.
“I think it surprised both of us though. It wasn’t anything that I don’t think was planned.”
Nelly believes spending so long apart from one another has been helpful with their reunion because the distance allowed them to "understand" each other and their relationship better.
He explained: “I think we both were pretty much doing what we do, but sometimes being separate you understand one another more.
“You be like, ‘Yo, let me see exactly what they see.’ You know, because we all can be defensive sometimes in our own relationships. We know we wrong but we going to stand on it. But we [are] all a victim to that.”
The couple's relationship "feels good now" because there is "no pressure" on either of them.
Nelly added: “Before I felt like both of us were doing what we were doing before career-wise, and when you got so many people in the middle of it, it can be tough."
Nelly and Ashanti, 42, sparked rumours they were back together after being spotted in Las Vegas in March, and a week later they attended a 40th birthday party for businessman Jon Schwartz together.
In December last year, Ashanti appeared on stage with Nelly during Power 98.3 and 96.1's 'Under the Mistletoe' concert.
Following the show, she admitted she was surprised by the response from fans wanting the former flames to get back together.
Appearing on 'Watch What Happens Live', she told host Andy Cohen: "My reaction was, 'wow'. It was a lot of comments and a lot of people wanting that."
Although she stayed coy over whether or not they would get back together, she did admit they were in a much "better place" than they were when they broke up.
She added: "What I will say is we're in a better place... We're cool now. We had some conversations, so it's cool."