MTV "Teen Mom" stars Ryan Edwards and Maci Bookout come face-to-face for the first time in years.
Embattled MTV star Ryan Edwards returned to “Teen Mom” for the season 2 “Family Reunion” episode “The Aftermath,” according to a preview from the TeenMomFanz Instagram account.
The father-of-three didn’t participate in the full season with his ex-girlfriend, Maci Bookout, but the preview for the reunion shows the two sitting together in front of the camera for the first time in years.
“It finally happens,” “Teen Mom” host Nessa Diab says in the preview. “Maci and Ryan on the couch together.”
“Ryan, why didn’t you want to attend ‘Family Reunion?’” Diab asks Edwards.
The clip is brief, but it appears to be an emotional meeting for Edwards and Bookout, who share a 14-year-old son, Bentley. The Tennessee natives look like they’re holding back tears in the clips MTV aired. Bookout looks down and frowns, and Edwards purses his lips and fidgets in his seat on the couch.
In the video, Edwards wears a taupe long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans. His hair is fully gray — as it has been for years — and cropped short.
Bookout wears a black sleeveless shirt with her hair down and crimped.
Based on the preview for “The Aftermath,” it isn’t clear if Edwards and Bookout were joined by their spouses, Mackenzie Standifer and Taylor McKinney, respectively.
The episode was filmed before Edwards’ arrest on February 10. He was charged with harassment, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance after authorities discovered he had an active warrant that was taken out against him by the Chattanooga police, according to a press release issued by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.
He had posted disparaging social media posts about Standifer via Instagram on January 29 and February 9, the day before his arrest. In the first social media post, a comment on one of Standifer’s posts, Edwards accused her of cheating and threatened to divorce her. Then Edwards posted on Instagram a picture of Standifer wearing a leather jacket and with nothing underneath and accused her of cheating.
Standifer went to the police to notify them about the picture on February 10, according to the press release, and police said “the photographs did not show nudity, but were revealing.”
Following Standifer’s complaint, Edwards was arrested on an outstanding harassment warrant issued on February 8, according to the sheriff’s office. Police also say they discovered during the February 10 investigation that Edwards had violated an order of protection issued on February 9 by contacting Standifer’s father to say he would be gathering belongings at his wife’s residence, which he had been required by the protective order to vacate earlier that day.
Standifer has not publicly responded to Edwards’ arrest or answered Heavy’s request for comment.
Standifer and Edwards — who have been married since 2017 — share two children together: 4-year-old Jagger and 3-year-old Stella.
Edwards’ drug addiction has been documented on “Teen Mom” and in the news, with Edwards doing multiple stints in rehab since 2017.
Edwards’ legal woes date back to 2018, when he was arrested on heroin-related charges, per Page Six.
Larry Edwards Accused Bookout of ‘Manipulating’ Bentley
Edwards and Standifer haven’t appeared on “Teen Mom” since they were fired in 2021. Before that, they stopped filming segments with McKinney and Bookout after mutual restraining orders were granted in 2018, E! News reported.
Bookout filmed with Edwards’ parents — Jen and Larry Edwards — but that ended after they got into an argument with McKinney at the 2021 reunion. McKinney claimed that they babied Edwards and were hard on Bentley.
It started when Larry Edwards claimed Bookout was controlling Bentley. “A 12-year-old boy can be manipulated,” he said.
Even though her relationship with Edwards was strained for years, Bookout always had a stable connection with his parents, so she was surprised to hear they thought she was “manipulating” Bentley.
“Watching this show and kind of hearing and seeing how they were feeling, it was kind of shocking to me,” she said during the reunion. “I did not realize that [they had] feelings and believing of me manipulating Bentley or us manipulating Bentley. I did not know that existed. I didn’t know that’s how y’all felt.”
Bookout has been afraid to let Bentley around his father, fearing he might be put in an “unsafe” situation. The assumption that Jen and Larry Edwards would allow something harmful to happen to Bentley under their supervision infuriated the Edwards patriarch.
“Never would that ever happen, ever,” Larry Edwards said, sitting on the edge of his seat.
McKinney then got on the edge of his seat and told Larry Edwards to “stop forcing” Bentley to have a relationship with his father.
Standifer Blamed Bookout for the Firing
During an interview after Stanfider and Edwards were fired from “Teen Mom,” Standifer told “Without a Crystal Ball” that Bookout was in control of their livelihoods as it related to MTV.
“The truth in the matter is, she calls the shots here. This is her show. It is what it is. It’s fine,” Standifer said in March 2021.
But the mother-of-three — who has an 8-year-old son, Hudson, from a previous relationship — said she was “relieved” to not be on the reality show anymore.
“It’s almost, like, a weight lifted off of my shoulders,” she told “Without a Crystal Ball.” “I deserve to feel good about myself, I deserve to not be riddled with anxiety all the time.”
Before MTV fired Edwards and Standifer in 2021, they briefly quit the show in 2018 amid Edwards’ battle with addiction and trouble with the law. That same year, he was arrested on heroin-related charges, People reported, and missed the birth of his son, Jagger, because he was in rehab, according to OK!.
“We’re not returning to ‘Teen Mom’ this season. The network told us they don’t want to show Ryan as a recovering addict,” Standifer told E! News in 2018. “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.”
Edwards hinted MTV wanted to portray him as the villain. “They want me to look angry, passive aggressive and uncaring regarding things that mean the most to me. I’m done taking their shit and letting the world believe this by standing up for myself,” he wrote in a 2018 post on Instagram.
“You’re believing a lie,” he continued. “And soon… very very soon, you WILL see the TRUTH behind the LIAR.”