On Thursday’s episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, Mackenzie McKee made the decision to look into filing for full custody of her three children after revealing that her ex-husband, Josh McKee, rarely sees their kids and allegedly ignores two of them.
During the episode, Mackenzie asks her children if they’ve spoken to their dad lately and sadly, her two youngest children– 10-year-old daughter Jaxie and 7-year-old son Broncs– reveal that their dad has stopped responding to their texts and calls.
“He answers Gannon but not me,” Jaxie says, referring to her 13-year-old brother. Gannon backs Jaxie’s statement, telling his mom and siblings that he doesn’t even have to call his dad because his dad contacts him.
“He doesn’t call me or answer me,” Broncs reiterates, with Jaxie noting that when her dad was supposed to attend one of her cheerleading competitions, he cancelled at the last minute, claiming he had plans that day.
Despite seemingly being the only McKee kid in Josh’s good graces, Gannon tells his mom and siblings that he learned years ago that his dad isn’t a man of his word.
“Like, don’t trust his word,” he adds.
Later in the episode, Mackenzie speaks to Briana DeJesus about Josh’s lack of involvement in the kids’ lives. Frustrated by the ongoing situation, she tells Briana that she’s considering filing for full custody, although Briana warns her that when it comes to deadbeat dads and custody, “multiple lawyers” have advised her not to “open a can of worms.”
“If they’re not bothering you, just leave it as is,” she says, later adding that Mackenzie should consider speaking to a lawyer to see if she gets a different response.
Later in the episode, Mackenzie tells her fiance, Khesanio Hall, that she does want to speak to a lawyer, explaining that, while Josh isn’t involved very much in her kids’ lives, she’d prefer that he “not [exist] in their life at all.”
“What I want is for Josh to be more involved in their life and he’s just not,” Mackenzie tells viewers. “These kids love their dad, but Khes is also dad now and he is consistency and he has been solid for two years. Josh and I were together for 10 years and I can’t even tell you that a month my kids had something that was solid.”
As fans of ‘Teen Mom’ know, Josh has been mostly absent from his three children’s lives since he and Mackenzie split in 2022, and in April of last year, Mackenzie revealed on Instagram Live that Josh was only in contact with their eldest child, Gannon– something viewers got to see for themselves on Thursday’s episode. Last summer, Mackenzie confirmed that she and Josh do not have a custody agreement and that Josh doesn’t pay child support. She also stated that Josh was aware that Khesanio had stepped in as a father figure to their three children and that he was allegedly totally fine with the arrangement.
“[Josh] has said, ‘Khesanio is doing a really good job raising these kids,’” Mackenzie said, noting at the time that she planned to give Gannon, Jaxie and Broncs the option to change their last names from “McKee” to “Hall” after she and Khessy tied the knot.
According to Josh’s Instagram page, he last spent time with Gannon and Broncs back in July.
“I wouldn’t want life any other way!” Josh captioned the video, despite the fact that his daughter, Jaxie, was noticeably absent from the outing. “God is good for who he is.”
New episodes of ‘Teen Mom: The Next Chapter’ air Thursdays on MTV.
