Jenelle Evans is candidly speaking out about her family in her new memoir, and revealing the tough decisions they faced in situations that took place before the cameras started rolling for Teen Mom 2.
The mother of three wrote in her book, Read Between the Lines: From the Diary of a Teenage Mom, that all of her siblings “suffer from various emotional problems,” but there was one defining moment with her “developmentally challenged” brother, Colin, that made a lasting impact on the family.
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Back in 2000, Jenelle’s then-9-year-old brother set his toys on fire and then accidentally set the family’s home ablaze, according to People.
To alert the family of what happened, Colin ran downstairs interrupting a movie night.
“It took us a few moments of confusion to figure out what in the hell he was going on about,” Jenelle wrote.
The family later came to learn that Colin set a toy car on fire and then tossed it on his bed. The flames then spread leading to the attic being destroyed in the fire.
The 25-year-old MTV star says that this was her mother Barbara’s “breaking point.”
“This… was too much for all of us,” Jenelle wrote.
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In response, Barbara sent Colin to a group home in Texas for nearly two years. Despite often butting heads with Barbara, Jenelle says that she understands her mother’s decision to send Colin away.
“I don’t blame my mother for sending him away like that,” she wrote. “It is a hard decision, yet I would’ve done the same.”
Barbara, 64, has spoken out about the incident saying it was “very hard” to put Colin in a group home.
“I had to do what I had to do because he could not live in that house, he was dangerous,” she said. “He burnt my house down when he was 10. We’d only been living in the residence for six months. Six months and he burnt the house down.”
In Colin’s defense, Barbara says that the fire “wasn’t intentional – it was an accident. But still, it was a tough life. Tough life.”
For more from Jenelle, check out her book Read Between the Lines: From the Diary of a Teenage Mom, which is out now, and tune in on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET for Teen Mom 2 on MTV.
