MTV "Teen Mom" star Maci Bookout said early episodes of her MTV reality show can serve as a type of sex education for her 13-year-old son, Bentley.
“Teen Mom” star Maci Bookout said early episodes of her MTV reality show can serve as a type of sex education for her 13-year-old son, Bentley.
“Obviously, I was a teen mom. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized more and more I was a kid having a kid and was a kid raising a kid,” she told Page Six. “I think with Bentley getting so close to 16, it really just puts that into a whole kind of different perspective of, ‘Yeah, you were a baby having a baby,’” she reflects.
Bookout welcomed her eldest child with her ex-fiance Ryan Edwards. The couple struggled to make their relationship work as Edwards showed a lack of enthusiasm for fatherhood and went on to battle drug addiction. Bookout’s engagement to Edwards ended when she realized he wasn’t the “life partner” she was looking for.
Bookout Said ‘Teen Mom’ Is Authentic
During the first season of “Teen Mom: The Next Chapter,” Bookout had Bentley babysit his half-siblings — Jayde Carter, 7, and son Maverick, 6, whose father is Bookout’s husband, Taylor McKinney — and didn’t exactly go well.
Bookout peeped on her kids through a baby monitor, and she said she was having “anxiety” watching Bentley dealing with his siblings — especially when they didn’t listen to him.
“He’s a great kid … Bentley’s mature and he’s very wise beyond his years and still, I’m like, ‘There’s no way [he can be a parent now],’” Bookout told Page Six.
According to Bookout, there’s never been another show like “Teen Mom” on television.
“I feel like it’s a great, real, raw, human example of, ‘Hey, this is life and this why every decision you make matters,’” she told Page Six. “The authenticity of our show in the early days, it’s kind of unmatched.”
Bookout Talked About Sex Ed With Bentley on Camera
Bookout has been open about wanting to teach her son about sex education. The mother-and-son duo had a “birds and the bees” talk during an episode of “Teen Mom” in 2021.
Bookout wanted to have a conversation with her son because he said everyone laughed at him when his voice cracked during Bible class.
“Girls aren’t gonna be so weird pretty soon,” Bookout told Bentley. “You’re gonna be like, ‘Oh, that’s cute.’ Or boys, whatever you like. It’s OK if you don’t like boys, I’m just saying if you do, I always include that because you can tell us anything. It’s gonna be OK.”
Then she got into specifics.
“The sperm will meet with the egg and that creates an embryo. And it doesn’t always work out, but that’s why you also need to use protection. I was 16 when I got pregnant with you,” she reminder her son.
Bookout was one of the first cast members to appear on the series when “16 & Pregnant” debuted on MTV in 2009. She gave birth to Bentley in the series’ pilot.
“Teen Mom: The Next Chapter” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.