Teen Mom star Maci Bookout is getting honest about her relationship with her ex, Ryan Edwards. In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, she shared what’s happening with their co-parenting relationship and how his current prison sentence impacts their son Bentley.
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She said there's a lot of 'temperature checking' going on.
Ryan was sentenced to 11 months in prison after pleading guilty to harassing his estranged wife, Mackenzie Edwards. This isn’t his first run-in with the law, which definitely has an impact on how Maci deals with the situation at hand.
"There's a lot of temperature checking for [me and my husband, Taylor McKinney] because obviously, our past with Ryan has not been the greatest, it has not been easy and [it's been] really, really bad at times," she explained.
"I feel pressure because I'm trying to support Bentley and do the right thing by him, and I'm learning how to even communicate and have a relationship with Ryan at all."
Their relationship has always had its ups and downs.
Maci also revealed that while it’s important for her to make sure that her husband and Bentley are feeling comfortable with the situation, it’s also important to take her own feelings and needs into consideration.
Maci says she’s trying to "not forget to check my own temperature and figure out what my boundaries are and what I'm OK with and what I'm comfortable with. It's been a lot."
Maci and Ryan had a difficult relationship since becoming parents to Bentley, who is 14. Many of their well-documented fights have to do with Ryan’s absence and addiction issues.
Ryan has constantly struggled.
Ryan was arrested in 2017 for possession of heroin and entered a 30-day rehab facility as a result. But he was arrested again a year later for violating the terms of his parole.
It was around that time that Maci and her husband, Taylor, filed for a two-year order of protection against Ryan after he threatened to "put a bullet" through Taylor's head.
Ryan was arrested again in 2019 for theft and heroin possession before finally being fired from Teen Mom in 2021.
Ryan and his ex-wife Mackenzie have been through a lot, too.
In March 2023, Ryan was arrested and charged with stalking his ex-wife Mackenzie. Despite being told that he could not legally have contact with her, he sent her a barrage of text messages.
Only a few days before the arrest, Mackenzie had filed for divorce from Ryan, citing multiple instances of domestic abuse. She alleged he "threw her 'down in the hallway and said he could not have her no one could,'" and also "opened [his] pocket knife' and put it to her 'back like he was going to kill' her,'" according to court documents shared by Daily Mail.
After pleading guilty and being sentenced to 11 months and 29 days in prison, he served three months before being sent to a rehab facility.
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Maci is just trying to move forward.
Some of these issues, along with how Maci and Taylor co-parented with Ryan, will be featured in the second season of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter.
"You're going to see us probably in a better point in a co-parenting relationship than we had been in a long time," Taylor told Daily Mail. Maci added that the show would give a glimpse into how they’re parenting a teenage boy alongside their two other kids.
"Now's the time when you actually have to let go a little bit and let them make decisions, let them screw up, let them figure it out. And that's hard to do sometimes. Very hard to do," she shared.
The new season of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter begins on July 19.
If you or someone you know has been the victim of domestic abuse, you can find help and support at DVIS.org, the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or by contacting your local women's shelter domesticshelters.org.
