It was the hug seen around the world. Ashanti and Nelly were both special guests at the Fat Joe and Ja Rule "Verzuz" battle that took place in New York on Sept. 14. And while they both were on opposite sides of the stage, Nelly made a beeline towards the singer and stretched his arms out to hug her, which sent social media into a frenzy.
Ashanti and Nelly were reportedly together on and off for 10 years before putting a final end to their relationship in 2014. During an interview with Angie Martinez, the "Foolish" singer talked about the viral moment and revealed that she hadn't seen the rapper in six years prior to that night.
"You know what, the crazy part is he didn't say anything," she said in reference to the hug. "First of all, I didn't know he was going to be there. I told [Fat] Joe, like 'Joe, why you ain't tell me he was gonna' be there?'"
Mimicking Fat Joe, she said, "He was like, 'Sis, I know, it's terrible.' He was like, 'I couldn't risk you not coming if you knew he was going to be there."
"It was very unexpected. I hadn't seen him in like six years or more. Spoken or seen," she said. "It was a little awkward."
But while their run-in was awkward for the singer, Angie Martinez had a different perspective. "I gotta say if you gotta run into an ex, you had the right outfit on," she said. "You always want to look your best." Ashanti agreed and called it "the perfect ex outfit."
During the Verzuz, the "Baby" singer had folks mesmerized with her sexy all-black look. She wore an Alexander McQueen leather jacket with a lace peekaboo bra, high-waisted leather panties, and Jennifer Le thigh-high boots.
While fans speculated that Nelly may want that old thing back, Ashanti has moved on. The Coach Carter actress shared that she was happily dating someone, but didn't reveal who.
The "Hot In Herre" rapper was also asked about the infamous hug during his Sept. 16 appearance on "The Big Tigger Morning Show." While the moment went viral, Nelly claimed that their interaction wasn't that serious.
"It wasn't just like that. I said what up to everybody bro," he said. "I said what up to everybody… I didn't want no uncomfortable feeling, nothing like that, everybody was celebrating. I just said what up, it was all good I just said what up to everybody…But they didn't catch that. They zoomed right in. But it was cool."
Featured image by Jason Kempin/Getty Images