Maci Bookout is usually a fan favorite among the Teen Mom stars, but, recently, the Teen Mom OG star has been getting called out for putting her tween son’s personal moments on-camera!
Fans have taken to social media over the past few weeks to express their concern— and sometimes downright anger— about Maci allowing her son Bentley’s issues with his father Ryan Edwards be her main storyline this season. Viewers have watched as Bentley told Maci he didn’t want to see his dad (or stepmother Mackenzie) until Ryan attended therapy sessions.
Maci also caught flak for filming her phone conversations with Bentley’s therapist, even after the 12-year-old told her he didn’t want to discuss on-camera what went on during his therapy sessions. During a phone conversation that was being filmed, Bentley’s therapist told Maci that Bentley said he feels neglected by Ryan.
Over the past few episodes, Maci has continued to allow Bentley’s issues with Ryan to take centerstage during her ‘Teen Mom OG’ segments, causing some viewers to become concerned and angry for Bentley.
“Maci needs to shift her story line onto herself and Taylor and what they do and let Bentley work through his emotions and relationships in private at this point,” one person tweeted after last week’s episode.
“Maci, if you care about your son and him getting therapy, ya don’t put it [on] TV. Bentley does NOT NEED THOSE QUESTIONS BLASTED ON TV!” another person wrote on Twitter.
Many viewers suggested Maci follow the lead of Teen Mom 2 star Chelsea Houska, who quit the show last year, mainly because her oldest child, Aubree, was getting older and Chelsea didn’t want her personal adolescent issues to become storylines for the show.
“Maci needs to take a page out of Chelsea DeBoer’s [book] and leave the show and give Bentley a normal childhood cuz all money ain’t good money,” one person tweeted.
“As for Maci, she’s just as bad [as Ryan] for putting Bentley’s business on TV,” someone else wrote on Twitter. “No wonder this kid needs therapy. Wait till Maci finds out her wrong doings from the therapist. It’s time to pull the plug like Chelsea.”
The hate continued on the official ‘Teen Mom’ Instagram page in the comment section of a recent post about Maci and Bentley.
“I hate that the storyline is focused on Bentley he’s a child going through adolescence…I cringe for Bentley,” one person commented.
“I think Bentley is subjected to enough without having everyone seeing his life story,” one person wrote. “Grown adults have a hard time living in the public eye you can’t tell me a middle schooler doesn’t.”
“It’s so weird to me that she’s filming all of this,” someone else posted. “Bentley probably is uncomfortable or will look back and wish he didn’t film, he’s too young to decide for himself.”
One person brought up the fact that all of the kids on the ‘Teen Mom’ shows have basically grown up on-camera and have never had a “normal” childhood.
“Imagine being Bentley and going thru this s**t all his young life with Ryan and everything is on TV,” they wrote. “I don’t find it entertaining, I feel awful for Bentley. He has no privacy, none of those kids have any privacy.”
Maci has yet to respond to the comments about Bentley.
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37 Responses
This is a case of “let sleeping dogs lay”. The world knows Ryan and his family is wrong in many ways. Leave it at that!! Let them and that part of Bentleys life sleep! Move forward to the next chapter already
Bentley needs to be a child, he’s old enough to decide what he wants but not this mess. Maci had no business filming the therapy session after Bentley told her his feelings about it.. she’s just as guilty as Ryan for putting this boy through this mess, the whole group needs to grow up. There’s a time to move on and that is now, you can see that Bentley is getting depressed. That therapy session needs to stay in the room with the therapist, what happened to confidentiality? Why was maci allowed to record the session? MTV needs to think about these children before they mess with their lives, the viewers are giving their opinions on social media and one day Bentley will see it all. Wake up MTV – you’re losing ratings….
I did’nt like Chelsea but i really do respect her reason for leaving the show. Maci could learn from that .. She has always been selfish, she’s just not as bad as the “teen moms” on the show, but she always had mean girl vibes.
Yes you can go downvote now ?
Looks to me like Bently is making his own decisions about his dad & what he wants out of a relationship with his father! People need to stop blaming Macy for supporting her son in his decisions! She has asked Bently if wanted to have stuff filmed he said yes maybe his way of finally getting his point of view & feelings heard by his dad! Ryan will always blame Maci cause god forbid if he took responsibility for any of his actions!
What is he going to say? Children honestly cannot consent and MTV is complicit in this, too.
Bentley is the breadwinner for his entire family. While Ryan and Mac and Maci and Tyler protect their own private lives they offer Bentley up as the sacrificial lamb to MTV for a storyline.
She is never going to change Ryan’s mind. To him he’s a great father who’s been wronged and nothing anyone (including Bentley) does or says is going to make him realise otherwise.
It must be the name Ryan ??
Honestly I completely agree with the comments. Why would you think a conversation with his therapist should be made public even though he stated he didn’t want these issues out there!?
This is straight-up child abuse, betraying Bentley’s privacy in this way! Maci is so lucky that Bentley is even willing to speak to a therapist— at his age, many kids are resistant and uncooperative. Maci needs to be realistic about two things: Bentley’s bio-dad is an addict, and Bentley is going to listen to her for about 15 more minutes. Bentley is at high risk for being an addict himself. Maci needs to take this very seriously, and get her son off MTV. The whole family should be off the show, so Bentley can have a normal, private life. That’s his best chance.
They are no longer teen mom. Maci has used this story line about Bentley and Ryan since it came back on tv. She make Ryan look like the bad guy. She is the problem as well because no mother would ever put that out there about their child. She using it as a story because her and husband don’t have a story to tell about their day to day life. Get of tv and give Bentley a normal child life. Like someone said money is not always good money
Bentley is so exploited. He deserves privacy, especially with information divulged to a therapist! I wouldn’t be surprised if gets bullied at school due to the oversharing. I remember a few seasons ago, Maci announced Bentley was racing to the bathroom to do #2 since he didn’t want to go at school. The poor kid can’t even poop in peace.
Maci, you are not going to get Ryan back, enough already. Let it go.
stay lit all non gingers
Imagine… exploiting your child and what he’s going through, at a very impressionable and confusing age, so that you can get your MTV check. I’m sorry but Bentley and what he’s going through with Ryan should NOT be the storyline. That should absolutely be private. He is still a child and this is heavy stuff that clearly is affecting him. I don’t think filming it for the world to see is helping him at all. I feel so bad for him!
As someone who goes to therapy herself, I can’t imagine ANYONE knowing what I talk about there. I may have mentioned a thing or two to people but never in full detail. If you REALLY still want to be filmed Maci, at least let your teen have his privacy. (I hope he one day says to her he doesn’t want to be filmed anymore PERIOD)
I’d be more embarrassed about my dad driving around falling asleep at the wheel on heroin than my mom talking to my therapist but that’s just me.
Taylor is his Dad, cryin’ ryan is a sperm donor.
Devils advocate here…maybe Maci thinks that by showing Bentley’s experience, that she’s helping many other kids in similar situations? But if that is the case I think she’s going about this wrong. You can see Bentley’s truly hurt by his sperm donor Rhine constantly being such a dick to him, and I don’t agree with basically violating HIPPA for the sake of a TV show. This isn’t the best parenting move on Maci’s end, but I don’t think we can compare Maci to Rhine, or try and make Maci look worse than Rhine, who is a complete POS and forever self inflicted victim, and lets not forget…dudes the reason why Bentley is in therapy in the 1st place.
Therapy is supposed to be a safe space and unless the patient is threatening to hurt themselves or someone else, their sessions should be completely private. This is not only a violation of Bentley’s trust and privacy, it is unethical to televise. I cannot imagine how embarrassing this whole situation would be for a pre-teen. Poor Bentley!
The day that I care what a bunch of idiots on the internet think I should do or take their advice is the day that unicorns will poop glitter.
It is time for Teenmom OG to end. The reality is no longer the truth. Most of these women have some sort of clothing line or business that would not be in existence if it weren’t for the show. And I doubt Maci wouldnt have as many kids if it wasn’t for the money they received. Ratings are low because the story lines are not realistic. I’m sure Bently will look back and regret his time on the show.
It is time for them to exit the stage permanently. They have nothing to add to the show at this point except to maybe crank out another kid.
But she has PCOS, remember? (Her storyline one year) Which makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible for some women (without medical help and medication) to get pregnant, because you very rarely ovulate, if at all. But not only did Maci end up pregnant, she didn’t know til 20 weeks?! I call BS on that
“In fact, some women with PCOS may not discover they’re pregnant until many weeks after conception. So again, avoid those early pregnancy tests. You may even want to test well after your expected period to avoid false positives or negatives”
A simple google will tell you that it’s not uncommon to have PCOS and not know you’re pregnant MANY weeks after conception.
I actually disagree with the hate aimed at Maci. Maci has dealt for YEARS with the emotional impact of Ryan’s neglect of Bentley. Jen and Larry seem to blame Maci for Ryan’s problem, and Mackenzie CLEARLY places all the blame on Maci. Maci is trying to do what is best for Bentley, not for Ryan.
Think about this—Ryan clearly had a drug problem for years but nothing was done to help him until we all watched him drive high as hell to his fake wedding with Mackenzie. Putting Ryan on blast seems to be the only way to force Ryan’s hand into changing his behavior. By showing Bentley in therapy, and talking repeatedly about Bentley telling Ryan, Jen and Larry he doesn’t want to see Ryan until they go to therapy together, maybe the man-child Ryan will take his son’s feelings seriously.
Maci is the one who is caring for Bentley, all the while being criticized by Jen, Larry, Ryan and Mackenzie. Remember the episode were Ryan, Mackenzie, Larry, Jen and Bentley were golfing and Ryan was straight up bullying Bentley, while Mackenzie laughed at her husband’s jokes?! Have we ever seen Maci or Taylor demean or belittle Bentley? I haven’t.
Lastly, while it might be uncomfortable right now for Bentley to have the world know he is in therapy, there is a good chance that in 5 or 10 years, Bentley will say he’s so thankful that therapy was a storyline because it changed his relationship with Ryan. We don’t know how the future will turn out. Maybe instead of being so quick to jump on Maci, we should cut her a little slack and place the blame where it is due—on Ryan, Mackenzie, Jen and Larry.
Wow!
I couldn’t have said it better myself!
That is a woman who fights tooth and nail for her son. And I don’t agree with the statement “But he’s Bentley’s father,” F**K that! That is an ungrateful d!ck who threatened the mother of his child and her husband with a GUN. So what respect or honor should he have?? Cuz he donated a sperm cell?? That act alone deems him worthy of some kind of respect?? Rapists make babies, too, so they deserve respect as the “father”???
You can’t force a man to want to spend time with his child. Maci is using Bentley to do her dirty work, make his father look bad, (which he does a bang up job on that himself, and quite honestly, Ryan doesn’t seem to give 2 shits what viewers think of him) a job a 12 year old should not be tasked with doing. These conversations and therapy appointments should be held in PRIVATE, not in front of a national audience. Oops, my bad. An audience of around 640,000.
Totally agree. It is unconscionable Maci is compromising her son’s privacy for a buck. These kids need to be off tv.
Or how ’bout Ryan not be a heroin junkie
Or how ’bout Ryan not be nothing more than a mostly-absent older brother
Or how ’bout Ryan not blame Maci for all of his own faults and failures
Or how ’bout Ryan not be a complete and total jackass
Or how ’bout Ryan not be THE WHOLE REASON BENTLEY EVEN NEEDS THERAPY
While Ryan was busy neglecting Bentley for HIS ENTIRE LIFE and emotionally damaging him, Maci raised Bentley on her own, starting at 16, to be a fantastic young man. He does great in school and in sports and he seems super sweet. She’s secured his entire future financially. She was open to the idea of therapy and is getting him the help he needs to deal with all the damage Ryan did to him. But god forbid she doesn’t hide it like a dirty secret. If the worst thing she’s doing is letting a phone call get filmed – a phone call which only said what every viewer of this show has already known for years and heard 100 times – then everyone attacking her must be absolutely perfect humans.
The internet is wild.
I agree with all of what you said about Ryan, he is a real piece of shit. And, for Jen & Larry to be implying that Bentley doesn’t actually have bad feelings towards Ryan but that Maci is poisoning him against Ryan is utter bullshit. Bentley is old enough to see Ryan for what he truly is and it damn sure isn’t being Bentley’s “father”! I think Bentley is treated by Taylor the way he has always wished Ryan would treat him.
I don’t think that Maci should hide that Bentley is seeing a therapist because she is actually trying to get him help before it effects his mental health. But, I don’t think she should blast Bentley’s true feelings on a phone call with the therapist. Bentley seems really quite and he is so sweet. I’m sure that he has never told Ryan how he feels or maybe he has tried and Ryan just doesn’t listen or care. I feel bad that kids are cruel and I don’t want Bentley taunted and picked on.
As for Chelsea quitting Teen Mom, I agree with her decision. I think this show has needed to end years ago for the children’s sake. But, I think Chelsea quit for her own reasons. Everyone that is commenting acting like Chelsea is a hero must forget that her whole entire last season was focused on Aubree and Adam. That was her storyline.
Or how ’bout Ryan not be a heroin junkie
Or how ’bout Ryan not be nothing more than a mostly-absent older brother
Or how ’bout Ryan not blame Maci for all of his faults and failures
Or how ’bout Ryan not be the whole reason Bentley even needs therapy
Or how ’bout Ryan not be a complete and total jackass
I guess Maci wants any storyline that she can get seeing that Bentley is in middle school now and that school is $10k plus a year. I’m sure she’ll guilt him about that too. “Hey Bentley, if we don’t have Teen Mom you can’t go to the awesome sporting school.”
I feel so sorry for that boy, like being 12 isn’t hard enough but knowing your life is on tv and you have no control over it is horrible. Ryan is still the biggest pos though? Wth is with his family, even Jen looks worn out this season. This is what I get for starting to watch a show that I thought would help me show my daughter how hard teen pregnancy is. She was not impressed by it and I can’t stop watching it, smh.
Yikes! I watched this episode too and felt so bad. I had to put my son in therapy for almost similar reasons and cannot imagine making him share what he spoke about to even his grandma! How could Maci even allow this to be filmed for ratings/her story. Sad.
I didn’t realize he was already 12. I have a 10 year old and ?. When I saw the first few episodes (this season) I was disappointed. I know Ryan is a pos but that’s his father and what she did was wrong. Poor kid.
Why is the therapist allowing any of this to be on camera? Where are the privacy laws?!!
If Macy signed a release that the therapist could talk about Bentley’s sessions then no laws were broken. And, I’m sure she signed them, just like she had to sign for her children to appear on camera.