Ashley Jones took part in her first reunion for Teen Mom 2, the second episode of which aired on Tuesday night. During the reunion, Jones opened up about what she experienced when it was announced that she would be joining the cast earlier this year. According to the reality star, she, unfortunately, received a great deal of hatred when she was first announced as Chelsea Houska‘s replacement.
Earlier in the season, Jones touched upon the fact that she is the only Black mother in the Teen Mom 2 cast. She opened up about that fact even further when asked about it by the reunion co-hosts, Dr. Drew Pinsky and Nessa Diab. In particular, they asked Jones how she felt about the racism that she received when she was announced as the newest member of the Teen Mom 2 cast. She said, “At first, it was very sad. It was very hard to deal with especially because people also bring my daughter [Holly] into it and say racist things as it pertains to my daughter.”
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Jones went on to say that as she developed an even larger platform due to joining Teen Mom 2, she realized that the trolling and racist comments from certain social media users just showcase what kind of people they are at heart. The MTV personality added, “But, as I’ve grown and as I’ve been on the show more and more and kind of been having this larger platform … I’ve just realized that people have that hate in their heart and that’s the burden for them to carry.”
As previously mentioned, this was a topic that Jones addressed earlier in the season. During an episode that aired in early July, Jones and her fiancรฉ, Bar Smith, spoke about how they had been experiencing more racism after they decided to speak out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Jones even stated that she and Smith started to receive more racist messages after George Floyd was murdered by former police officer Derek Chauvin. The couple later spoke with Jones’ mother and stepfather about this matter, during which she expressed, “I feel like because I’m the only Black mom on a predominantly white show, I don’t have no choice but to go hard, get an education, get all A’s, give my daughter everything she wants. I don’t have no room to slack. [sic]” Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by ViacomCBS Streaming, a division of ViacomCBS.
