On Thursday’s episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, Jenelle Evans had an overdue heart-to-heart with her teenage son Jace, who until last year, was being raised by his grandma Barbara Evans.
As The Ashley previously told you, Jenelle gained full custody of her (now) 15-year-old son in February 2023 following a years-long battle with her mom. Nearly a year later, Jenelle filed to legally separate from her husband, David Eason, and more recently, she was rehired by MTV and moved herself and her three children across the country to Las Vegas, Nevada.
In the clip from Thursday’s episode, Jace admitted that he held resentment toward Jenelle due to all of the “crazy drama” she caused him to endure since his birth. (That includes Jenelle signing custody of Jace over to her mom, Jenelle bringing in numerous new “father figures” for Jace over the years, multiple Child Protective Services investigations and her last soulmate, David, allegedly physically abusing Jace in 2023…just to name a few things.)
Jenelle began the on-camera conversation by thanking Jace for helping out around the house and with his younger siblings, Kaiser and Ensley, before going on to ask how Jace feels since moving away from “The Land” in North Carolina.
“I feel a lot safer without David,” Jace says, to which Jenelle replies, “I’m sorry it didn’t happen sooner, but I was trying.”
While Jenelle apologized to Jace on Thursday’s episode and insisted that she had been “trying” to leave David, it’s worth noting that she initially hired (and paid for) attorneys William and Tara Gore to defend David in his criminal case for allegedly physically abusing Jace. Even after David was hit with an additional felony charge of “assault by strangulation” in January, he was still publicly (and presumably, financially) supported by Jenelle, as the pair did not legally separate until February.
As Jace and Jenelle’s conversation continued on Thursday’s season finale, Jenelle acknowledged the many ups and downs that she and her mom– whom Jace refers to as “Meme”– have had throughout Jace’s life, with Jenelle revealing that Jace had expressed his how unhappy the constant custody drama had made him.
“ … I remember you saying, ‘I want all the drama to stop, [Child Protective Services] has been in my life since I was little. I’m sick of them coming in and out,’ and you said you just want this all to be over,’” she said. “With me and Meme, it was like, arguing about you and I know you were in the middle of that.”
Jace agreed with Jenelle’s comments, adding that he “just wanted everything to calm down” and for everyone to get to “a good point.”
When asked by his mom if he had any resentment towards her for what’s occurred over the years, Jace hesitated before eventually nodding his head “yes.”
“ … At the time, I did,” he said.
“But now that we’re out of all of this crazy drama, it’s just calm, everything’s good now.”
Though Jenelle actually admitted that she’s “made tons of mistakes” in her life, she insisted to Jace that her “intentions were never bad,” before seemingly placing the blame (again) on her mom.
“I always tried hard to fight for you,” she claimed. “I just feel like you were robbed from me as a baby, you know? And I don’t think it was fair.”
Watch the clip from Thursday’s episode below.
