Maci Bookout doesn’t have a relationship with ex Ryan Edwards or Edwards’ wife, Mackenzie Standifer, even after Bookout and Standifer posed together for a photoshoot while Edwards was in jail earlier this year.
In the photo, the two moms posed with all of their children: son Bentley, 10, whom Bookout shares with Edwards, daughter Jayde, 3, and son Maverick, 2, whom she shares with husband Taylor McKinney, Standifer’s son Hudson, 4, from a previous relationship, and Jagger, 3 months, whom Standifer shares with Edwards.
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But not every photo is worth a thousand words, as Bookout told Us Weekly that she and Standifer are not friends.
“We don’t really have a relationship. It’s not negative. It’s not a bad relationship, there’s just really not one,” the Teen Mom OG star said. Edwards, who was released from jail in April, had not had contact with Bookout since his release. He spent three months in jail on heroin possession and theft charges.
“I haven’t seen him or anything. [He] hasn’t had the chance to impact [me] or have an impact yet,” the 27-year-old said. Her admission does not come as a surprise; Bookout, McKinney and their two children were granted a two-year restraining order against Edwards in May 2018.
However, Bentley is aware of what’s going on with his dad.
“Even if people don’t talk about us, like, we’re on TV at home, kids always tell the truth,” she said. “People are talking about it at home. So I definitely don’t want him going to school and some kid saying, ‘Oh so-and-so told me’ or ‘my mom showed me’ or ‘I saw this.’”
“I think just from the standpoint of him being able to process, comprehend and understand, and get through it in a healthy manner, I think he needs to know what’s going on,” she continued. “So that I can also, as his parent, reinforce that he does have love around him and support around him. And that’s life; things happen but it’s going to be OK.”
Edwards was released from Hamilton County Jail in Tennessee in April after his January arrest for theft of services under $1,000 after walking out on his $36 bill in Chattanooga. At the time of his arrest, he was also booked on a heroin possession charge stemming from an outstanding warrant. He was arrested in March 2017 for heroin possession and entered rehab after the arrest. In 2018, he violated his probation and was arrested for the second time in four months, returning to treatment again.
