Jenelle Evans is defending herself against negative comments she’s received since news broke Monday that she had sent her eldest son, Jace, to go live with his dad, Andrew Lewis, in Florida, despite Andrew being absent for nearly all of Jace’s life.
As The Ashley reported, the decision to send Jace to live with Andrew came after the 15-year-old ran away (again) last week. After Jace was located, a judge signed off on letting Jace live with his dad. By Friday, Jace was on a plane solo to Florida.
“So there are lots of things circulating around on the Internet so I need to talk about it,” Jenelle said in a video posted to her social media platforms on Tuesday. “It’s not like it’s anyone’s business but recently I sent my 15-year-old son to live with his father in Florida. A lot of people are asking, ‘Why couldn’t you handle him? Why would you do that? He had one incident and then you just ship him off.’ That is not what happened.”
“My son has been dealing with mental health disorders since he’s been 10 years old. He was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 10, and most recently, in 2023, he was also diagnosed with major depressive disorder, along with his ADHD and defiant disorder ODD,” Jenelle continued. “Incidents started occurring with my son when he was 10 years old. My whole family knew this. It was a family secret. We tried to keep the privacy of my son.”
Jenelle declined to go into detail about what those “incidents” were but stated “it was pretty bad.” She then stated that Jace had run away from his grandma Barbara‘s home while he was living with her. (The Ashley can confirm this is true.)
“A lot of people are like, ‘He’s been running away from your home as soon as he got there’ and that’s not the case either,” she said. “He’s been doing this since he’s been 10. I got custody because my mother couldn’t handle it anymore. Because she was in a bad, dangerous situation herself.”
“Things were getting so bad back in 2023 once I got custody, CPS got involved. Once CPS got involved they thought things were crazy in the household, just like everyone else thinks,” Jenelle said.
“But really, what came down to it, three months later, after my son was with CPS, they sent him to his aunt’s house by marriage,” she said. (This confirms The Ashley’s report that Jace went to live with April Eason— sister of Jenelle’s estranged husband David— in late 2023.)
“He acted out there. At this point, he acted out at every single household he went to,” Jenelle continued. “So, CPS threw their hands up, dropped the case, and said, ‘Let’s just give him to his mother. Let her handle it.’ So, once again, I got him back.” (You can read about CPS dropping the case here.)
Jenelle stated she left David in early 2024 and moved herself, Jace and her other two kids to Las Vegas in hopes of getting a “fresh start.” Unfortunately, as The Ashley reported, life in Vegas was not good for Jace.
“Three to four weeks and another incident,” Jenelle said. “With [him having] Defiant Disorder, it’s very hard to deal with. Kids act out on purpose because they want attention.”
“They have no remorse, they have no empathy for what they did,” she continued.
Jenelle then brought up that her [newly reinstated] best friend Tori Rhyne saw Jace’s behavior during her visit last month. As The Ashley told you, Jenelle called 911 on Jace in April, claiming he was “smashing” everything in her home and had bolted once he found out Jenelle called the police. In her call to 911, Jenelle mentioned that Jace had “defiant disorder.” (You can listen to the audio of the call below.)
“I had my ex, August [Keen], he saw his behavior. Everybody saw his behavior behind closed doors,” Jenelle said. “It’s just we never wanted to put it in front of the media and explain it because it was Jace’s privacy.”
Jenelle went on to say that Jace has acted up “too many times” via “multiple incidents for years and years and years” so she decided to reach out to Jace’s father, Andrew.
“Something had to be done,” she said. “So, yeah, I called his dad. I said, ‘Hey, I need help.’ I was in a panic attack! I was crying my eyes out! And I [told Andrew], ‘For once, I need your help. I need you to help take over this situation because all of us have put forth effort into it as much as we can give. We’ve tried everything we could. I’ve tried getting placement in boys’ homes but they are just too expensive and insurance won’t cover it.”
(As The Ashley told you, Jenelle reached out to MTV last year to try to get them to cover some of Jace’s medical costs but her request was ignored.)
“Right now he needs to be in a situation where both households are safe,” Jenelle said. “Separating the chaos from the situation right now to protect my two younger kids [Ensley and Kaiser] is very important, and also to protect himself.”
Although Andrew has only seen Jace a few times in the 15 years since his birth, Jenelle seemed confident he could do a good job with Jace.
“I feel like, when you’re coparenting, if both sides of the family could come together to help solve these issues before [Jace] turns into an adult and really gets [himself] in trouble, it’s just really important,” Jenelle said.
“I put all the drama aside and said, ‘Let’s just do this,'” she added.
Jenelle revealed that Jace is currently staying in Florida with Andrew, as well as Andrew’s mom, who Jace hasn’t seen since he was a baby.
“So, really, you guys are lookin’ at it as a negative situation, but everyone behind closed doors is lookin’ at it as a positive thing for him,” Jenelle said. “So you guys can say all you want. You can say I’m not taking care of my kids.
“Being a mother is doing in best interest for your child,” she concluded. “And I am doing the best interest for my child.”
After Jenelle posted the video to her Facebook page, she received plenty of comments and questions about the situation, with many pointing out that Jenelle’s actions have possibly contributed to Jace’s issues.
“Let’s be honest. You have never provided a stable home either way,” one person wrote. “[David] was a huge problem sure, but you’ve demonstrated that since then it has been no more stable and chaos – BF’s , moving across the country, etc.”
The comment section under her YouTube post of the video received similar comments.
“I think you would get a lot further with honesty,” someone wrote. “Not saying the issues are 100% your fault BUT you are his mother. Take some accountability. The life choices & men you’ve put in front of your kids has a lot to do with it. It’s ok to admit you’ve messed up.”
In the comment section of the video on TikTok, someone stated that they believe Jace acts up because of “the family life he had.”
“And [he] didn’t grow up in my home,” Jenelle replied.
