Spring is here, the sky is blue, whoa. Birds all sing as if they knew. Today's the day Jenelle Evans will say she doesn't and she'll never be unhappy anymore.
Because now that the Teen Mom alum has officially filed to end her nearly eight-year marriage to David Eason, she's ready to celebrate.
"I'm moving on to a new chapter in my life," the 33-year-old explained in an exclusive interview with E! News, "and moving on from negative energy and just trying to find myself again and learn to be alone and have this time to myself and my kids."
In other words, the mom of three is goin' to the chapel and she's gonna get divorced. And by chapel, she means New York City strip club Spearmint Rhino where she’ll celebrate her soon-to-be-legally-binding split from the dad to her 8-year-old daughter Ensley with a June 12 bash at 10 p.m.
Having waited out the yearlong separation period required in North Carolina, "I filed for absolute divorce," Jenelle noted. "So, fingers crossed, just waiting on paperwork to be signed, and then I'll have my last name back."
And while she’s ready to re-embrace the Jenelle Evans she was before marrying David on their wooded 10-acre property, her sons Jace, 15 (with ex Andrew Lewis) and Kaiser, 10 (with former fiancé Nathan Griffith) are also pretty psyched for her next chapter.
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As she admitted, "My boys were kind of like, 'Thank, God!'"
As for Ensley—who Jenelle currently has sole physical and legal custody of, though she and David are still going to court—"She was just like, 'Whatever,'" said Jenelle, noting her kids "didn't take it badly, and they didn't take it good. I would just say they handled it very well."
Admittedly, it felt like a bit of a gamble when she left her life on the East Coast behind for a fresh start in Las Vegas.
By her account, the union with David wasn’t a winning one, with Jenelle previously detailing on Teen Mom: The Next Chapter that David was "emotionally abusive, saying, 'Jenelle, go kill yourself, your mother doesn't even love you. Cry yourself to sleep, b---h.'"
And yet she had reservations about leaving that toxicity behind.
"For the longest time I was just so nervous," Jenelle told E! of her fears, "like, 'Can I do this on my own? Can I take care of these three kids by myself? Will they listen to me without a male figure around?'"
But in the nearly 16 months since she announced her separation from David, she’s grown to love parenting by herself without anyone else’s input to influence her. Said Jenelle, "Everything’s been pretty smooth."
And, truthfully, she’d been bracing for a rocky transition.
"Leading up to that point, it was very fearful, and a lot of anxiety, and I knew I had to overcome that fear and anxiety if I was going to leave him," she revealed. "And when I finally did, it was kind of like a light switch went off in my head. I think just everything building up to it, I was just done. I just kind of exploded."
Among the issues that set her off, she detailed, was when they fell behind on the mortgage in 2019 for their rural home.
"And I'm the one that got us out of that hole," Jenelle recounted. "He did not step up for his family." Add in the fact that she felt "so disrespected by him," she continued, "and it turned into a situation where we were like roommates, and I feel like there was no coming back from that."
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Especially considering David wasn’t even a particularly hospitable housemate.
"Just the arguing—it was bad energy," Jenelle detailed. "So, I was just finally ready to give that all up. And now everything's been very peaceful, calm. Everyone's anxiety has been down."
Knowing that she "tried everything" to work out their marriage has left Jenelle feeling at peace with her decision.
"It felt really good to finally sever that relationship," said Jenelle. "I did everything that I could. But ultimately, everybody was butting heads with David."
And now her family is adjusting nicely to life in Sin City.
Though the desert heat has taken some getting used to, "I feel free here," said Jenelle. "It's a fresh start for all the kids. They're in a lot of different activities around town."
While she hasn’t necessarily been partaking in the legendary nightlife—"I think I’ve been on two dates in the past year"—she’s ready to roll the dice on her future.
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"I feel like I wasted so much time trying to fix that relationship that I could have done a lot more with my life and my time," Jenelle said. So, now she’s ready to play her cards right, eyeing various TV projects that put her behind the camera and making plans to launch her own cannabis line.
More than anything, though, she’s eager to blaze her own trail. Said Jenelle, "I am super ready for this."
And while she’s still on the hunt for her next costar, plenty of her former castmates have won the jackpot when it comes to love. See which Teen Mom stars are holding tight to their partners and who has realized it’s time to fold.
