It’s an emotional moment for Jenelle Evans. More than a decade after handing over her parental rights to her mom, Barbara Evans, the 31-year-old former Teen Mom 2 reality star was granted full custody of her 13-year-old son Jace.
Jenelle shared the news in a statement to Us Weekly on Saturday, saying she and her mother “decided together to grant full custody back to me because we want to build our relationship back as mother and daughter.” And it’s already official! The MTV personality, who shares Jace with ex Andrew Lewis, revealed to the outlet that they signed the papers on March 16, saying:
“Also, my mother agrees it’s time for Jace to be back with his siblings and living with a mother and father. She also thinks it’s important for Jace to be around a father figure to learn ‘boy things’ and have ‘men talk.’ She has seen the way David parents my children and she knows we’re able to handle it. We want to all get along for the sake of the children and like I said before, building back our relationship as mother and daughter. We have officially signed the papers on Thursday, March 16th at the courthouse, it’s a done deal!”
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Jenelle also shares an 8-year-old son named Kaiser with her ex-boyfriend Nathan Griffith and a 6-year-old daughter Ensley with her husband David Eason. The couple previously lost custody of their children for around a year and were fired from Teen Mom 2 after David shot and killed their family’s dog in April 2019 because it bit their daughter. Despite their troubling history, her manager August Keen told Us Weekly on Saturday that her and David’s relationship is stable right now:
“Jenelle and David are definitely together and things between them are great. They’re a happy family and they are completely fine.”
Following her interview with the outlet, Janelle took to TikTok to share an emotional video of her signing the paperwork to become Jace’s official guardian again. And at the end of the video, she could be seen sitting in the car with tears running down her face as she held up the documents to the camera. The momma then wrote in the caption:
“ITS OFFICIAL! Thanks everyone for the support! Words cant descibe how happy i truly am. Our family is complete now! Thank you mom.”
@jenellelevans ITS OFFICIAL! Thanks everyone for the support!
Words cant descibe how happy i truly am. Our family is complete now! Thank you mom.
For those who don’t know, Jenelle and Barbara have had a strained relationship for years due to their disagreement over Jace’s custody. After he was born in 2009, she gave legal custody to her mom. Over the years while filming Teen Mom 2, viewers saw the family members fight over the arrangement – with Jenelle often slamming Barbara for not letting her help parent him. The author’s struggles with substance abuse and tumultuous relationships only created more tension between her and her mom, as well as hurt her relationship with Jace. Despite eventually working on herself, Barbara and Jenelle continued to fight in and out of court over custody of her son.
Before her wedding in 2017, Jenelle told Us Weekly she refused to invite her mother to the ceremony since she didn’t want to give up custody of Jace:
“I can’t forgive someone that’s just not going to give me back my son, so, and it’s still going on. It hasn’t been resolved. And if I had custody of him now maybe I would have invited her, but I’m not at the moment.”
But things seem different now! It’s nice to see these two work things out and want to improve their mother/daughter relationship moving forward. Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments below.
[Image via Jenelle Evans/TikTok, MTV/YouTube]
The post Jenelle Evans Breaks Down In Tears After She Regains Custody Of 13-Year-Old Son Jace From Her Mom appeared first on Perez Hilton.