Teen Mom star Ryan Edwards experienced many ups and downs with ex Maci Bookout and her husband, Taylor McKinney, over the years, and he acknowledged all that Taylor has done for his and Maci’s teenage son, Bentley Edwards.
During the Thursday, April 3, episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, Ryan, 37, and Taylor, 35, got to make amends following years of issues during a golf outing. While fans have watched Taylor step up to help raise Bentley, 16, Ryan has become more involved in his eldest’s son’s life amid his sobriety journey.
“I never thought I might get this far,” Ryan admitted, referencing his sobriety and his relationship with fiancée Amanda Conner as they prepared to welcome their first child together. The couple later welcomed their baby girl in February.
Taylor added that their relationship might have been different if they had met for the first time when Ryan was sober. “It would have been completely different,” he said. “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.”
He also recalled one time he got in a yelling match with Ryan’s dad, Larry Edwards, which was documented by MTV cameras. “I had one goal going into that day, and it was not to make things worse. And I failed that,” he said.
“I was in that way. I was a knucklehead, getting high all the time,” Ryan responded. “I know that made it a lot harder for everyone — you guys, Mom, Dad, Bentley, everybody.”
Taylor then said that he didn’t know “what I was getting myself into” when he started dating Maci, 33, who welcomed Bentley in 2008. “I hadn’t even had a serious girlfriend and then I had one that was long distance with a 5-year-old,” he continued.
Ryan went on to praise Taylor for the relationship he’s created with Bentley since he married Maci in 2016. “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,” he said.
Taylor responded, “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?”
After both Taylor and Ryan acknowledged that their relationship is better than it’s ever been, they promised to work together as coparents through any conflict moving forward.
“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 said.
In January, Maci exclusively spoke to In Touch about how her coparenting dynamic with Ryan has changed since he became sober. “It’s definitely healthier,” she said at the time. “We still have a long way to go, but it’s much more stable and stronger than it’s ever been and than I ever thought it could be, to be honest.”
Maci also admitted that “it took a lot of self-awareness and accountability” to get to where she and Ryan are together. “Everyone involved had to do a lot of work on themselves for all of us to be where we are now,” she said.
