Jenelle Evans just did two interviews in which she discussed how great her son, Jace, is adjusting after going to live with his dad, Andrew Lewis. The fired Teen Mom star described the transition as “smooth,” but…according to The Ashley‘s sources, things have been anything but smooth for the father and son since Jenelle sent Jace to Florida on May 9.
Jenelle told Access Hollywood that Andrew and Jace have “reconnected” and that Andrew is teaching his son “guy stuff” and catching up. According to someone close to Andrew’s family, though, Jace isn’t even with Andrew anymore— and hasn’t been for a few weeks!
“The situation at Andrew’s home was not good,” the Florida source— who spoke to The Ashley on the condition of anonymity— stated. “Andrew is in no way in the position to be raising a kid, especially one who barely knows him and didn’t want to be there in the first place.”
“Jace lasted less than two weeks with Andrew. He’s not there anymore. Andrew is not mature enough to raise a child by any means,” the source said, confirming that Jenelle “took Andrew and his family’s word that he had changed” but did not actually go to the home herself before sending Jace there.
“Jace didn’t choose to go live with Andrew. It was decided for him,” the source added. “And he hated it here. And he was very upset with Jenelle for sending him. No one is surprised this didn’t work out.”
During her interview with the Fargo Talks YouTube show released on Thursday, Jenelle talked at length about Jace being in Florida and enjoying time with his dad. (It is unknown when Jenelle recorded this interview, though, so there’s a chance it was recorded before Jace left Florida around the third week of May.)
“He just, he needed his dad,” Jenelle said during the episode of Jace. “And his dad hasn’t been involved in his life since he’s been a baby.”
“It was time,” Jenelle continued. “Everyone’s like, ‘Why’d you send him to a stranger?’ But that’s his dad. That’s his other side of his family. And they’ve actually been keeping in contact and visiting each other for the past two years. So, they’ve been reconnecting and they’ve been texting each other. And I’ve been monitoring everything.
“[Andrew] was an alcoholic, but his family says [Andrew] is sober now. And that was years ago when I was, like, 16,” she added.
Jenelle raved about how well Jace and Andrew were getting along.
“They’re doing great. Ever since I sent him there, they’ve sent me pictures of them fishing,” she said. “He’s in Florida so they went out on the beach. They eat at the pier. They do so many good things, and they’re not posting about it, which is great. Because I told [Andrew], I said, ‘He needs privacy right now.'”
According to the Florida source, Andrew has his own issues that make him a less-than-ideal choice to parent a teenager.
“Andrew has not changed. I don’t understand why she would say that. Anyone around here knows that’s not true,” The Ashley’s source stated.
On the podcast, Jenelle stated that she sent Jace away to protect her younger kids, Kaiser and Ensley, from Jace’s mental health issues, and that she had considered sending Jace to a boys’ home facility but she couldn’t afford it, given that the public facilities have a very long waiting list.
“You go look at private stuff and it’s like, $30,000 a month, $1000 a day or more. That’s the cheapest one I found,” she said. “So a lot of people are like, ‘Why didn’t you send him there before his dad’s?’ I don’t have the money, and the state, they have a long waiting list on places. He’s been in therapy since he’s been a child. He’s seen psychiatrists. Like, I mean we’ve tried everything. So our hands were completely tied.”
Jenelle stated on the episode that her mom Barbara— who raised Jace until 2023, when she signed custody back over to Jenelle because she was unable to handle Jace’s behavior– offered to take Jace into her home again, but Jenelle said she wanted him to go to Andrew’s instead.
“I was like, he left there from a bad situation. It’s just going to happen again,” she said. “So, I’m like, ‘Let’s just send him to his dad’s.’ And, yeah, they’re doing great so far. We’ll see.”
It appears that the situation with Jace has put stress on Barbara as well. On the night of May 20 (around the day that Jace left Andrew’s), The Ashley can confirm that Barbara was pulled over for speeding— very close to Jenelle’s North Carolina home on The Land. (Barbara lives more than 30 miles south of The Land, by the way.) According to the police report for the traffic ticket, Barbara explained that she was in the middle of a “family crisis,” which was why she was speeding. She told the cops that she was looking for a bike key (that we can assume had been at Jenelle’s house on The Land.)
In her interview with Access Hollywood— which was filmed after Jace left Andrew’s— Jenelle made no mention of the “family crisis” and, in fact, made it sound like things were going swimmingly for her and her kids at the moment.
“I’m focusing on my kids, I’m focusing on my life,” she said. “Things are so calm and peaceful right now and I want to keep it that way.”
