Taylor McKinney and Ryan Edwards have worked past their differences.
The relationship between Maci Bookout McKinney's husband and her ex, with whom she shares 16-year-old son Bentley, has not always been an easy one. Ryan's sobriety has brought a lot of growth to the co-parenting dynamic, something that continues during a conversation between the two men on this week's episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter.
Ahead of the conversation with Ryan, Taylor shares his thoughts for the conversation with his wife, explaining that he wanted to take accountability for the time he crossed a line while also acknowledging it was a response to the situation at the time.
"I could approach it like, 'I was trying to stand up to my family, but I could have gone about it a different way,'" Taylor explains. Maci agrees that some conversation between the two addressing what went down between them is overdue.
"Things are going good, but that doesn't mean that with this new co-parenting journey, it might not get hard," she acknowledges. "It's just like creating a new space for conversation and communication. It's never been there before."
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When they meet up for their golf outing, the two catch up about Ryan and fiancée Amanda Conner's plans as they prepare to welcome their first baby together. Ryan mentions that at the time the scene was filmed, he had a year and seven months of sobriety under his belt.
"I never thought I might get this far," he admits.
"I think if I would have met you sober when I first met you, it would have been completely different," Taylor says. "I just didn't know that side, so I kind of like kept you at arm's length just, you know, I didn't want to make the situation worse. But I wanted to protect my family, I just went about it the wrong way."
Acknowledging a time that he unleashed on Ryan's dad, Larry, on camera, Taylor continues, "I had one goal going into that day, and it was not to make things worse. And I failed that."
"I was in that way. I was a knucklehead, getting high all the time. I know that made it a lot harder for everyone — you guys, Mom, Dad, Bentley, everybody," Ryan acknowledges.
Taylor admits, "I don't know that I knew what I was getting myself into. I hadn't even had a serious girlfriend and then I had one that was long distance with a 5-year-old."
"I can see that you and Bentley have a great relationship, man. And you really have taken a lot of time and effort and I appreciate it," Ryan says.
"Even when we were butting heads and hated each other, somewhere deep down I still wanted you to do well because at the end of the day, you're Bentley's dad, you know?"
They both acknowledge that things are in a better place and promised each other to resolve things civilly if that ever does change in the future.
"We'll just talk it out. Hell, if we can come out here and golf today after everything else, I'm sure we can come up with something to fix it," Ryan laughs.
Teen Mom: The Next Chapter airs on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.
