Maci Bookout Says Ryan Edwards’ Relationship With Son Bentley, 14, Improved While In Prison (Exclusive)

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Teen Mom: The Next Chapter star Maci Bookout is opening up about ex Ryan Edwards‘ life in prison, months after he was arrested for violating his restraining order against estranged wife, Mackenzie Edwards. In an EXCLUSIVE interview with HollywoodLife, Maci also details how his relationship with their 14-year-old son Bentley has been affected by his recent run-ins with the law. Obviously, Ryan has had many run-ins with the law over the years in relation to drug use, but this past April, he was sentenced to 11 months in prison after he plead guilty to harassing his Mackenzie, and Maci made a decision to stand by him — most notably, by recently attending one of his court hearings pertaining to the matter.

“It was important for me to show up and let Bentley see me show up for Ryan because ultimately, you know, at the end of the day, it’s obviously still his dad,” Maci told us while promoting the new season of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, which Ryan will appear in. “But also for Ryan, and Ryan’s parents — all of us collectively are going through a lot with this whole situation. Ryan made bad decisions, but at the end of the day, his whole world has just completely fallen apart, and I just wanted him to know that just because this has all happened, it doesn’t mean I’m just going to quit on him. But [it was] mainly for Bentley. I felt like it was important for him to see me support his dad.”

Maci also revealed that she and Bentley hear from Ryan often. “He calls pretty regularly — a couple times a week,” she revealed. “He’s doing as good as he can be. Some days are better than others, and he’s had some rough patches of just depression and all the things. I mean, I’ve never been to jail, but I can only imagine what that’s like. But he’s doing good.”

Obviously, throughout Ryan’s time on 16 & Pregnant, as well as various Teen Mom spinoffs, he was often seen engaging in nasty fights with Maci and not being present when it came to raising their son together. He was arrested in 2017 for heroin possession and then checked himself into rehab months later. Unfortunately, he was taken into custody again one year later, after violating his probation. And Ryan’s troubles didn’t end there — he was arrested again in January 2019 for heroin possession and theft, and was later fired from the Teen Mom franchise in March 2021.

Ryan recently started filming for Teen Mom again, and will briefly appear in the new season of Next Chapter. But in March 2023, Ryan was charged with stalking. Just days after Mackenzie filed for divorce and got a restraining order against him, following six years of marriage, he violated that order by sending her a series of text messages. According to court docs, she filed the restraining order because he allegedly held her by her “neck to the wall”, threw her “down in the hallway and said he could not have her no one could,” and “opened [his] pocket knife” and put it to her “back like he was going to kill” her. Ryan eventually plead guilty and was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days in prison. He was then released from prison on July 14 after serving three months, and was sent to a rehab facility.

Surprisingly, Maci says Ryan’s relationship has improved with Bentley since he went to prison. She explained, “[Their relationship is] pretty good. Taylor [McKinney] and I kind of came to the realization a couple weeks ago that we feel like he communicates more consistently right now with Bentley than before, just as far as calling and talking to him and stuff like that. So the silver lining I guess is it — even though it’s kind of been a s*** show — it’s kind of been like a blessing in disguise.”

Aisde from Bentley, Ryan also shares a son, Jagger, 4, and daughter, Stella, 3, with Mackenzie.

Teen Mom: The Next Chapter returns with back-to-back episodes on Wednesday, July 19 at 8pm ET/PT on MTV.