Bunnie Xo‘s interest in doing a docuseries about convicted murderer Wade Wilson took a dramatic turn after she revealed he gave out her phone number to other people.
After getting in touch with the Florida death row inmate, 30, “Wade took it upon himself after that first phone call that we had to start giving my phone number out to random women,” Bunnie, 44, — real name Alyssa DeFord — explained during the Monday, October 21, episode of her “Dumb Blonde” podcast.
It really irritated Jelly Roll‘s wife, who added, “I was getting so frustrated with all the drama.”
Bunnie called Wade to confront him about the topic, recording the conversation and playing it back for listeners.
“You can stop getting me in trouble online,” she told him. “That would be great.” Wade admitted to giving out her phone number but said he had “stopped,” claiming, “I only did that to like two people.”
Bunnie disputed the figure, saying it was at least five people who got her private phone number.
During the conversation Wade asked Bunnie about a comment she made online, telling her, “I literally have a picture of it and it says something to the effect of, ‘I need to show these people something about the red flags and warning signs.'”
“I think what I said with that’s being taken out of context,” she responded. “They said, ‘Why did you interview Wade Wilson?’ And I said, ‘Because I think women need to see the red flags and the warning signs of somebody who’s as charming as you. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.'”
Wade’s case caught Bunnie’s attention in June when he was convicted in the brutal October 2019 murders of two women in Cape Coral, Florida: Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz.
Kristine, 35, was beaten then strangled to death in her bed. Diane Ruiz, 43, was strangled, beaten, pushed out of a car and run over repeatedly hours later on the same day.
Wade was convicted of first-degree murder in their deaths on June 12. He was sentenced to death on August 27.
Bunnie expressed her interest in talking to Wade in a since-deleted TikTok post in June, explaining, “I am fascinated with his story. How cool would it be if I got to go into the jail and do a sit down with him and do a podcast?”
After fans blasted Bunnie and called her insensitive for wanting to give the convicted murderer a platform, she told fans in a follow-up video, “I’m waking up to a ton of people who were offended and upset — rightfully so — by my post yesterday,” about the backlash.
“I think anybody who has followed me for a very long time knows that my intentions were not to glorify somebody,” she said in the TikTok video.
“What we’re not going to do is put words in my mouth and change things around,” Bunnie continued. “I did not say the man was hot. I said women think he’s hot, and some think he’s weird, talking about how the internet is so divided over this murderer.”
“Being curious about why a killer is a f–king whack job does not make me a bad person because there are so many people who are interested in true crime and murderers get interviews all the time. But what makes me an asshole is being insensitive to the victims’ families,” she added. “Even though it wasn’t intentional, it’s still what happened. For that, I do apologize.”
