‘I AM IN SHOCK’

Ex-Fiancée of Lana Del Rey’s New Husband Says She Was Blindsided by the Marriage

“I am in shock because we were engaged for 12 years, and he got married after one month,” Kelli Welsh said.

The ex-fiancée of Lana Del Rey’s new husband—49-year-old alligator tour guide Jeremy Dufrene—was shocked when she learned that he had married the 39-year-old pop star. Del Rey and Dufrene tied the knot Thursday in a small outdoor ceremony near the bayou in Louisiana where he works, but Kelli Welsh said she only found out the next morning, when she was shown photos. Welsh, 45, was engaged to Dufrene for over a decade before they parted ways in Oct. 2023. “I am in shock because we were engaged for 12 years, and he got married after one month,” she said. Del Rey and her beau wasted little time getting hitched after their relationship went public in August. Nevertheless, Welsh doesn’t harbor hard feelings. “I am happy for him,” she said. “He is a very protective, hardworking, manly man. He needed to get out of his comfort zone. He was used to bayou life and being out on the swamp. He is deserving of this blessing.” Dufrene dated Welsh when the two were teens, but married another woman, with whom he has a child—but the pair rekindled their flame in 2011 and got engaged in 2012. “I will say that he really does look happy with her,” Welsh added. “And she does with him which is a good thing to see. It’s not a fake happy—he truly is in love with her.”