A difficult relationship. Teen Mom fans have watched Maci Bookout and Ryan Edwards’ drama play out for more than a decade — and things have only gotten worse through the years.
Bookout and Edwards were the first couple featured on 16 and Pregnant in 2009, which documented their rocky relationship as the Things That Matter cofounder got pregnant as a junior in high school and gave birth to their son Bentley in October 2008.
After Bentley’s birth, tensions between the pair only grew, save for their brief engagement in 2009. (The then-couple soon called it quits for good.) While dating other people — Bookout dated Kyle King from 2010 to 2012, while Edwards was in a relationship with Dalis Paige at the same time — the Battle Upstairs author only grew more and more frustrated with her ex as she felt like she was coparenting more with his own parents than with him. After Bookout wed husband Taylor McKinney in 2016 and Ryan tied the knot with wife Mackenzie Edwards the following year, Bookout and Ryan’s relationship only became more strained, in no small part due to the mechanic’s perceived absence with Bentley, his multiple run-ins with the law and drug abuse.
Things came to a head in 2018, when Bookout was granted a restraining order against her ex after Ryan allegedly threatened both her and McKinney. (In addition to Bookout and her husband, the order of protection also covered their children Jayde and Maverick for two years.) At this point, Ryan had been arrested twice: once for heroin possession, the second time for violating his probation stemming from the drug charge.
Three years later, in March 2021, McKinney and Larry Edwards, Ryan’s father, nearly came to blows on-camera during a heated discussion about Ryan’s relationship with Bentley — or apparent lack thereof. That same month, the Edwards family, including Ryan’s mom, Jen, and Mackenzie, were fired from the show. (In addition to Bentley, Ryan is father of son Jagger and daughter Stella, whom he shares with Mackenzie; Mackenzie is also mom of son Hudson, whom she shares with ex Zachary Stephens.)
One year later, Bookout exclusively told Us Weekly that Ryan and Bentley “don’t have a relationship at all.”
In December 2022, the Tennessee native shared with Us that she was able to let go some of her “anger” toward Ryan while working with a life coach on Teen Mom: Family Reunion.
However, things only got worse for Ryan in the following months. In February 2023, he slammed Mackenzie in a series of slut-shaming social media posts, claiming that she cheated on him. Though Bookout did not comment on the drama, she took to her Instagram Story amid the chaos to share a post about the trauma of “narcissistic abuse.”
Amid his social media attacks, Ryan was arrested after violating Mackenzie’s order of protection against him and booked on multiple charges, including harassment, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance.
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Keep scrolling to see the biggest ups and downs in Bookout and Ryan’s relationship over the years:
