Teen Mom’s Ryan Edwards Commits to Rebuilding Relationship With Bentley: ‘If He Wants That’

A fresh start. Teen Mom OG alum Ryan Edwards made his return to the franchise during the Teen Mom: Family Reunion The Aftermath special where he committed to rebuilding his relationship with son Bentley. 

“Ryan, there’s a part of Bentley that is hurting,” Ryan’s ex and Bentley’s mother, Maci Bookout, said during the Tuesday, February 21, episode. “He loves you so much, and there is only one person that can help that hurt. And it’s you. He wants a relationship with you more than anything else.”

Following Maci’s emotional plea, Dr. Cheyenne Bryant asked the Tennessee native if he could “commit to [being] consistent.”

“I mean, hell, I don’t even know what he’s got going on anymore. I don’t think Bentley and I even have a real relationship anymore,” Ryan, 35, responded. “But, I mean, if it’s picking him up at a certain time or whatever.”

Coach B then suggested the father of three reach out to his eldest son via FaceTime on a weekly basis, which Ryan said he could do “if [Bentley] wants that.”

Ryan and Maci’s sitdown on the MTV stage marks his first appearance on the show since he and his parents, Jen and Larry Edwards, were fired in March 2021. The former couple – who welcomed their son in October 2008 – documented their rocky coparenting relationship throughout nine seasons of Teen Mom OG. 

“There was a lot of times I wasn’t there just to see him play ball or just putting myself first,” Ryan said of their strained past. “I said some things that were hateful [to Maci],” he added before apologizing to her. 

“I wouldn’t have appreciated it, so yes, I’m sorry,” he told the Bulletproof author, 31. 

Just eleven days before the reunion special aired, Ryan – who also shares children Stella and Jagger with wife Mackenzie Standifer – was arrested on February 10 for violating a protective order against his wife. 

“[Ryan] was working, he was doing better than he had done in the past. He was communicating with Bentley more. They were having one-on-one dad son time,” Coach B told The Ashley about the time between the Teen Mom: Family Reunion taping and Ryan’s arrest. “Their relationship was actually starting to become a little more substance-based than it had been before.”

The life coach went on to say, “My heart is sad for both Ryan and Bentley, because I can only imagine how Ryan feels about breaking his commitments to himself as a man, and to his son, who he wants a relationship with.”