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Ashanti’s VMAs 2023 clutch features throwback pic of on-again boyfriend Nelly
![Ashanti](https://pagesix.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000037210362.jpg?w=1024)
Ashanti walked the red carpet of the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards solo, but she made sure to bring her on-again beau with her.
The R&B songstress, 42, posed for pictures Tuesday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., carrying a clutch with Nelly’s face on it.
The throwback photo also featured Ashanti, as the beloved couple recently rekindled their romance a decade after their final breakup.
The “Foolish” singer stunned in a sparkly sheer gown that exposed most of her chest, which was covered meticulously by two green rhinestone turtles.
She styled her hair in an updo and sported old Hollywood glam, making sure to strike sexy poses for the barrage of photographers.
Nelly was likely MIA because he had just performed at the pre-show alongside NLE Choppa.
The “Hot In Herre” hitmaker confirmed that he Ashanti were dating again in a “Boss Moves with Rasheeda” interview earlier this week.
“Yeah, we cool again,” he divulged. “I think it surprised both of us, though. It wasn’t anything that I don’t think was planned.”
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The rapper, 48, said he believes the years they spent apart actually helped them find their way back to each other.
“I think we both were pretty much doing what we do, but sometimes being separate, you understand one another more,” he explained.
“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 all a victim to that.”
Nelly noted that his new relationship with the “John Tucker Must Die” actress has had “no pressure,” so it “feels good now.”
“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,” he said.
The hip-hop stars first sparked reconciliation rumors in April after they attended a fight together in Las Vegas.
They continued to fuel speculation the following month when they showed up to a Sin City exec’s birthday party as a couple.
“They were smiling at each other nonstop,” an insider told us at the time. “They were super cute.”
In August, the duo looked loved up while singing Usher’s “Nice & Slow” in an adorable Instagram video.
“See, I’ve been waiting for this for so long,” they belted out through big grins. “I just want to take it nice and slow.”
The previously on-again, off-again twosome split for good in 2013 after 10 years together.