Earlier this year, Bunnie Xo experienced some blowback on social media after she expressed desire to have the TikTok-famous convicted murder Wade Wilson on her podcast.

Now, she says that situation was a powerful growing experience that taught her about the importance of keeping the focus on victims when she talks about true crime.

It also led to a wild exchange between Bunnie and Wilson himself.

The Dumb Blonde host — who is wife to country star Jelly Roll — breaks the whole story down in a new episode of her podcast, where she offers listeners a primer on Wilson’s crimes and shares recordings of the phone calls between herself and the murderer.

First, Bunnie wound back the clock to June of 2024, when she first expressed interest in having Wilson as a guest on the podcast. She then recounts how fans objected to her “giddy” demeanor while she spoke about Wilson and how she described the case as “fascinating.”

“I think what people thought what I was trying to do was glorify [him],” Bunnie says in her new episode, adding that she “100 percent understands” why her initial comments were received that way.

“Was it wrong for me saying I want him on the podcast? I don’t think that it was, but how I said it, not having empathy for the victims’ families, was not okay,” she reflects.

“… I just wanted to let everybody know, I heard you. I listened to you. And I have been behind the scenes diligently trying to learn and correct how I approached that whole situation.”

The phone calls, which begin around the 1:20 mark of Bunnie’s podcast, titled “Wade Wilson: No Redemption,” start with Bunnie responding to email requests from Wilson asking for financial compensation to participate in a proposed documentary she wanted to make about him.

Bunnie’s agency had no interest in paying him for the documentary, especially because it’s illegal: Son of Sam Laws prohibit convicted criminals from profiting off of shows or writing about their crimes.

But Wilson suggested that she could secretly paying him, saying, “the world doesn’t have to know” and “even monsters get paid.”

The phone call ends with Wilson claiming he’s heard from multiple different people making him offers about documentaries and other media ventures about his story, but saying he’d rather work with Bunnie, since he’s such a big fan of her husband Jelly Roll.

But they’re gridlocked over the money question — until a second phone call.

“Wade, took it upon himself after that first phone call we had, to start giving my phone number out to random women to reach out to me,” she continues, saying she started getting contacted by women saying that they were in romantic or sexual relationships with the convicted murderer.

When Wilson called her and she confronted him about it, he got defensive and started arguing about her intentions in wanting to interview him. He implied that she was speaking negatively about him to his female correspondents.

“Me and you both know one thing for sure …. you know some people, maybe I know some people, and everybody’s got a past,” Wilson told her, in an apparent vague threat that he might know someone on the outside who’s close to Bunnie and Jelly’s family.

“I’m not talking about, ‘Oh, that motherf–ker sold some drugs’ …. f–k all that, bro, I’m talking about real, people out there, bro. Doing some things,” he continued.

“I knew exactly what he was talking about, but I wasn’t gonna feed into it, because you’re not gonna threaten me with … people from the inside, or whatever the hell’s going on,” Bunnie said on the podcast.

Towards the end of their conversation, she tells him that she doesn’t bear any ill will toward him, despite their rocky start.

“Bunnie, I wouldn’t care if you did, or anybody else,” he replies.

Read More: Bunnie Xo Meets the Two Sons of Murder Victim Diane Ruiz

Though Wilson ultimately said no to appearing in a documentary series about him, she has maintained more positive connections to the case. One of Wilson’s victims, Diane Ruiz, left two young adult sons after he murdered her in 2019. Bunnie has gotten in touch with those two men, and she has maintained a positive relationship with them, helping them amplify their GoFundMe in an effort to contribute to their healing.

The Ruiz sons will appear on an upcoming Part 2 of Bunnie’s podcast episode about Wade Wilson’s murders.