It was an emotional moment for Jenelle Evans. More than ten years after handing over parental rights to his mother, Barbara Evansthe former is 31 years old Teenage Mother 2 reality star is given full custody of his 13-year-old son Jack.
Jenelle shared the news in a statement to Us Weekly on Saturday, saying that he and his mother “decided together to give me full custody because we want to rebuild our relationship as mother and daughter.” And it’s official! At MTV personality, which shares Jace with Ex Andrew Lewisrevealed to the outlet that they signed the papers on March 16, saying:
“Meanwhile, my mother also agreed that Jace will return with his siblings and live with his mother and father. He also thinks it’s important for Jace to be around a father figure to learn ‘boys’ and have ‘guys talk.’ He has seen the way David parents my children and he knows we can handle it. We want everything to get along for our children and as I said before, to rebuild our relationship as mother and daughter. We officially signed the papers on Thursday, March 16th at the courthouse, it’s done!”
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Jenelle also shared her 8-year-old son’s name Kaiser with his ex-boyfriend Nathan Griffith and a 6-year-old daughter Ensley with his wife David Eason. The couple previously lost custody of their children for about a year and were fired from Teenage Mother 2 after David shot and killed his family dog in April 2019 for biting his daughter. Despite their troubling history, her manager August Keen toward Us Weekly on Saturday that her and David’s relationship is stable now:
“Jenelle and David have always been together and it’s great. They’re such a happy and wonderful family.
After an interview with the outlet, Janelle took it 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 can be seen sitting in her car with tears running down her face as she holds up a document to the camera. Mom then wrote in the caption:
“IT’S OFFICIAL! Thanks everyone for your support! Words cannot express my true happiness. Our family is complete now! Thank you mom.”
@jenellelevans OFFICIAL! Thanks everyone for your support! ✨❤️ Words cannot express my true happiness. Our family is complete now! Thank you mom.
♬ Stay With Me – Sam Smith
For those who don’t know, Jenelle and Barbara have had a strained relationship for years due to a disagreement over Jace’s custody. After he was born in 2009, he gave legal custody to his mother. Over the years during filming Teenage Mother 2, viewers saw family members fight over the arrangement – with Jenelle often slamming Barbara for not letting her help her parents. The author’s struggles with substance abuse and a tumultuous relationship only created tension between her and her mother, as well as straining her relationship with Jace. Despite finally working things out for themselves, Barbara and Jenelle continue to fight in and out of court over custody of their son.
Before getting married in 2017, Jenelle revealed Us Weekly she refused to invite her mother to the ceremony because she didn’t want to give up custody of Jace:
“I can’t forgive someone who just won’t give my child back, so, and still continues. It’s not resolved. And if I had custody of him now maybe I would invite him, but I don’t now.
But it looks different now! It’s good to see the two work out and want to improve the mother/daughter relationship moving forward. Reaction, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments below.
[Image via Jenelle Evans/TikTok, MTV/YouTube]