Teen Mom OG viewers saw the moment Maci Bookout‘s ex-boyfriend, Ryan Edwards, checked into rehab while his wife was still pregnant this week. Edwards reportedly returned to rehab in September.
Edwards’ wife, Mackenzie Standifer, told a producer during Monday’s episode that he checked himself into a “longterm” facility.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“It’s called a 90-day intensive rehab facility,” Edwards’ mother Jen explained, reports PEOPLE. “We can’t talk to him for seven days. They’re pretty strict. Two phone calls a week, 10 minutes [for each phone call].”
Edwards’ father Larry said his son “just knew he needed to go” and he picked the rehab center himself. “He wants to do better, he wants to get better,” Larry said.
“It is a relapse or a slip, whatever they want to call it,” Jen added. “I think that’s why he realized before it gets out of control he needs to get a hold on it.”
Standifer said her husband was “about to spiral bad” and beleived his children “deserve to have the healthiest dad.” However, Sandifer said she would call Ryan a “selfish a–” for not being around while she was still pregnant if she did not love him.
At the time the scenes were filmed, Larry and Jen said Bookout and Bentley, her 10-year-old son with Edwards, did not know Edwards was in rehab. They were waiting for the right time to let Bentley know, and Larry said he wanted to be “totally honest” with their grandson.
“I want to talk to Bentley and explain to him: Just because you’re an addict doesn’t make you a bad person,” Jen said. “I don’t really know how much to tell a 9½-year-old.”
Edwards reportedly checked into rehab in September, a source told Radar Online in early October. According to the source, Edwards went to a facility in Alabama, and Standifer began living with her parents. He missed the birth of their son, Jagger, on Oct. 9, but left rehab to meet him a few days later.
This is not Edwards’ first time in rehab. He previously sought help for drug abuse in March 2017 after he was arrested for heroin possession. He completed a most of a 30-day program and claimed to be sober, but still said he did not think he could pass the drug tests Bookout wanted him to take so he could see Bentley.
Edwards was also arrested in March and July for allegedly violating his probation. Footage of Bookout learning of Edwards’ March arrest aired in a Teen Mom OG episode last month.
Amid these struggles, Standifer and Edwards said they were leaving Teen Mom OG for good, although Standifer has appeared on the current season infrequently.
“We’re not returning to Teen Mom OG this season. The network told us they don’t want to show Ryan as a recovering addict,” Standifer said in July. “But they did want to enter a contract with our unborn baby and have the baby film with Ryan’s parents so it would look like someone else is raising it.”
New episodes of Teen Mom OG air on MTV at 9 p.m. ET Mondays.
