Mackenzie McKee released her first book this week, revealing for the first time many behind-the-scenes stories from her time on 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom 3 and Teen Mom OG, as well as her life off-camera. In Straightening My Crown: Conquering My Royal Mistakes, published by Post Hill Press, Mackenzie talks about her roller coaster relationship with her husband Josh McKee, the death of her mother Angie Douthit, getting cast on MTV and much more.
Here, The Ashley pulls out five things she learned from reading Straightening My Crown!
Mackenzie was held against her will in a mental hospital while pregnant with Broncs in 2016.
Trigger warning: Suicidal thoughts
View this post on Instagram
In the book, Mackenzie reveals that she was sent to a mental health facility when she was pregnant with her third son, Broncs, in 2016.
Mack states that she was in at an “all-time low” and was “severely depressed and hopeless.” She also confessed that she was considering suicide.
“Every day was a battle with dark thoughts and emotions,” she wrote. “Nothing in me wanted to be alive. One day, I texted Josh that I just didn’t want to live anymore. He told my parents, of course, and they were all afraid I was about to make a bad decision.”
Mackenzie said she was sitting in her car when two police officers approached her and made her get out of the car. She was then handcuffed right as Josh pulled up next to them.
“It dawned on me as he started talking to the police—he was in on this!” she wrote. “He was the one who had called the cops on me and told them I was threatening to commit suicide. I was livid and started screaming at both Josh and the police.”
Mack– who has Type I diabetes— said her blood sugar level was at a “life threatening” high level, which was contributing to her erratic behavior.
“I looked down at my almost eight-month pregnant belly and suddenly got scared for the baby,” she wrote.
“I pleaded with the cops to let me go home by telling them I wasn’t going to hurt myself. I tried explaining that I’m a diabetic and I could die without my insulin shots, but they completely ignored me and handcuffed me before throwing me in the back seat.
“The next thing I knew, the cops were taking me to the hospital prepping to take me to a mental health institution. Sadly, the more I screamed for medical attention, the more the cops sat around in a circle in the hospital room and laughed.
“Finally, I let out the biggest scream of my life, ‘Someone give me insulin now or my baby will die!’ The cops stood up and slammed me down on a bed nearby. One had a hand over my mouth to shut me up, while two others handcuffed me on my back, making breathing nearly impossible. I closed my eyes and knew that this was going to be the end of my baby’s life.”
Mackenzie writes that Josh was doing everything he could to free her, after he realized he had made a mistake calling the cops. However, she was transferred to another mental health facility anyway.
“As they escorted me to the cop car, I looked over to see my husband in his truck, four hours later, watching his pregnant wife’s hands and feet cuffed,” she wrote.
Mackenzie— who had already appeared on “16 and Pregnant” and ‘Teen Mom 3’ at this point—- used a fake name while in the institution because she didn’t want the tabloids to find out where she was.
“I still couldn’t believe this was legal. I was weak, lonely, and felt like I wouldn’t ever be able to rise above this mess. I even told them my name was Sarah James because I didn’t want the teenagers [who worked there] to recognize me and sell this story to the tabloids. With my luck, I knew the tabloids could really twist this into something even worse than it was, as they are good at doing.”
Mackenzie writes that her doctor told her that she was lucky that her baby survived the ordeal. Broncs was born in August 2016.
Mackenzie was molested as a child, and still sometimes sees the boys who did it when she goes back to her hometown.
In the book, Mackenzie shared that she had been molested around the age of four by a 12-year-old boy at her mom’s daycare, as well as the teen son of of a family friend. She states in the book that this is the first time that she has publicly spoken about what happened to her, and that, for a while, she wasn’t even aware that she had been molested.
“I didn’t even realize that the behavior in which I had participated with these two boys was ‘bad’ until I was in fifth grade,” Mackenzie writes, adding that, after watching a p0rn movie, she started to understand what had happened during those times.
“As time went by, the gravity of what happened to me sunk in,” she writes. “These incidents didn’t spoil my entire childhood, since I didn’t realize it was wrong until later, but I know it must have shaped my personality and influenced other choices I had made.”
Later, Mackenzie writes that she still sometimes sees both boys who molested her when she goes back to her hometown.
“Those two boys from my childhood are now grown men who still live around my hometown, and I occasionally bump into them when I’m back in Oklahoma,” she reveals. “While I don’t believe they are the type of adults who would do something like that to children, I could be wrong. Neither one has ever talked to me about what happened or apologized. Maybe they don’t remember it happened, or maybe they believe I was too young to remember.
“Regardless, I don’t think for a second that they live with the knowledge that what they did changed my life forever and contributed to losing my self-respect and lowering expectations for myself. I thought I had lost all my value as a human being.”
Mackenzie got her call to be on MTV while she was peeing into a cup in her high school bathroom.
View this post on Instagram
The book isn’t all serious stories and tragedy, though; it has plenty of fun (and random) stories about her life as a pregnant teen.
In one part, Mackenzie details how she got on the show “16 and Pregnant.” After she and her sister jokingly filled out an online application for the show, Mack writes that she received a call from MTV while tinkling into a cup in order to take a required drug test to be on the cheer squad.
“My friends and I were in the restroom taking our tests, and I literally got a call in the bathroom stall while I was peeing into a cup,” she writes. “I almost thought it was a joke at first, but it started to sink in the more I heard. It was someone from MTV who explained that a film crew wanted to come to Oklahoma next week to interview me and do a test run to see if I would be right for the show.
“I couldn’t believe it. After a brief pause, I said, ‘Let me ask my mom if that’s okay. I’ll call you back,’ and I hung up the phone. It seems funny to think that although I was about to be a parent, I still had to ask my own parents for permission! It’s also pretty funny to think that one of the most influential moments in my life occurred in a restroom stall at my
high school. It seemed so unreal at the time.”
At the time she was cast on “16 and Pregnant,” Mackenzie wasn’t even allowed to watch MTV.
“It still makes me laugh to think that here I was—– a teenager in math class whose mom wouldn’t even let her watch MTV— and now she was asking her mom’s permission to be on MTV.”
Her car was vandalized after people in her small town found out she was pregnant and appearing on “16 and Pregnant.”
Mack discusses how she was considered to be a “bad influence” once it was revealed she was pregnant as a teen. However, when word spread that Mackenzie had agreed to tell her story on MTV, many in her small town were very unhappy. Someone showed how unhappy they were by vandalizing Mackenzie’s car.
“If I still had any doubt about how my community felt about the show and me, it was gone the next morning when I walked outside,” she wrote. “Someone had scrawled ‘Attention Wh0re’ across the windshield of my car, along with a photo of dripping boobs that said, ‘Got milk?’ Once again, I felt that familiar sense of humiliation creep through my body. Why couldn’t I live the life I wanted and everyone else just leave me alone?”
She finally reveals what really happened behind-the-scenes of her 2015 sex tape scandal.
Back in 2015, Mackenzie’s name was in the headlines when rumors circulated that she had made a sex tape and was in talks with infamous p0rn peddler Vivid Video to released the tape. Mack denied that she was pulling a “Farrah”…but was then photographed meeting producers at Vivid in California soon after. Mackenzie never really explained what happened, but addresses the whole thing in the book.
Mackenzie claims that her new “mentor” (aka the woman behind Farrah Abraham‘s sex tape) “tricked” her intro the whole thing, allegedly telling Mack that this would eventually lead to her getting speaking engagements to help girls lead “Christian lives.”
Tale as old as time…
“This producer promised she could help me achieve the level of fame and wealth that I wanted so badly if I just trusted her and let her handle boosting my image and relevance,” Mackenzie writes. “Even though I felt something was a little off, I was willing to take the risk and let her take me under her wing. She was so persuasive and kept coming after me, telling me how great my life could be if I just listened to her.
“Well, things got weird quickly. She said she had just the right opportunity for me, and that all I needed to do was let her tell the media that someone ‘leaked’ a sex tape of me. To
be clear—there was, and still is, NO sex tape. Period. But this producer said that even bad press is good press and that I could go on TV and social media afterward to publicly deny that the tape existed.”
Mackenzie wrote that she was fell for the scheme because she was “young, naïve, gullible and in way over my head.”
“She convinced me that by doing this, I could turn the experience into speaking engagements for young girls trying to lead better Christian lives. I know. It doesn’t make sense in retrospect to me, either, and I don’t know why I fell for it.”
Mackenzie said she then flew to Los Angeles to meet up with the “mentor,” who took her to a building so that Mack could meet this woman’s friend.
That “friend” turned out to be Vivid founder Steve Hirsch.
“We got out of her car, and her friend was standing outside in front of his business just waiting to greet us,” Mack writes. “The producer told me to shake the man’s hand, and someone snapped a few pictures. Little did I know that I was shaking hands with a famous p0rn producer and that this was all arranged so she could generate publicity by sending these pictures out to all the tabloids.”
Mackenzie claimed she had no idea “Vivid” was an adult entertainment company.
“Here I was, on social media, shaking the hand of a p0rn king in front of a giant sign with the p0rn business name emblazoned across it,” she wrote. “To seal the deal, the woman told me that now I just needed to ‘accidentally” send her a picture of my boobs that she could leak to the press, and that’s when things would really take off. There was no way I was going to do that, and she got angry and called the whole deal off.”
No tape ever surfaced and Mack has always denied that one ever existed. In the book, she claims her family and Josh were hurt and embarrassed by her scandal.
View this post on Instagram
“You know what I got out of it? Absolutely nothing more than a humiliated spouse and family, a long recovery from earning a fake bad reputation, and losing a job as a cheer coach years later because all the moms saw the story on the internet and complained that I was a p0rn star who wasn’t fit to teach kids. At the time, I didn’t understand that once
something’s on the internet, it never goes away, and someone will always find it.”
Of course, this differs a bit from the tale Mack was telling back in 2015.
Here’s a transcript of a video interview Mackenzie did in 2015 during the scandal.
“I would never make a sex tape,” Mackenzie said, before explaining how a tape got into Vivid’s offices. “My phone was stolen and looked through and there is personal videos and photos on there that are for mine and my husband’s eyes to see…My phone was taken and I got it back but they were looking through trying to find someone to call [and found the tapes].”
She claimed that the videos feature her and Josh, and they were never meant to be released to the public. At the time, Mack’s mom Angie denied any tape even existed.
“It’s simply not true,” she tweeted to a fan. “There isn’t a tape and there never has been…it’s a ridiculous made-up lie.”
Mackenzie’s book is available from Post Hill Press. You can order it on Amazon using the link below!
(Photos: MTV; Instagram; Post Hill Press)
38 Responses
She gave a fake name so the teenagers at the facility there wouldn’t recognize her yeah b/c I’m sure they don’t know what you look like.
I don’t believe the cops story. This immature and thirsty girl is just grasping for “drama” to fill pages of her joke of a memoir. I wish this show would just go away.
why do they give these idiots attention or a job with a ton of money when they are trash
And thats a stupid ass title ?
Im sorry but I dont believe any of this …
Honestly I still think to this day she got pregnant to be on the show ..
So she was threatening to kill herself and her unborn son, then shouting for insulin as not to die, this girl is nuts.
Police may have put her in handcuffs to transport her, but to restrain her feet says to me that she fought them – and I can definitely seeing her being very emotional & putting up a fight. As for her saying that they ignored her claims about needing insulin also tells me there was something more urgent going on with her that they had address first. Also, it sounds like her vital signs were okay. Either way, after years of retelling this story to others & herself, I’m sure some of the details are a little hazy.
I didn’t watch her 16&PG & never knew she existed until she joined the cast of TM-OG. Whew, it sounds like her parents really had their hands full with her – the daughter seeking to be famous and rich. And, her being on TM now is showing young girls just like she used to be that they can do & be the same. Good job MTV. Good job Mac for having not developed any insight into how your teenage goals lead you to make some horrible decisions – you’re just perpetuating the cycle of dysfunction. UGH
I agree with you. I also think perhaps the cops were trying to get McKenzie to the hospital to have her blood sugars addressed as we as suicidal ideations. I don’t know if by law cops can do anything with insulin. They have no training in that and are not medical providers. EMS would have needed to be there. We also don’t know how far they were from the ER.
Since she was having severe physical and emotional problems, I don’t think her account is 100% true and the other side of the story (police officers and other witnesses) would probably be more accurate.
Ugh I’d say her hands were full with those parents of hers ? creeps. She didn’t appear to do too much without her mamas opinion, permission or blessing
Jin-nail may have some competition, for the Pinocchio title.
I’m not believing this fairytale
?
I just happened to be looking back at old The Ashley stories on Mac a few days back, and got to wondering whatever happened to that whole sex tape thing. It was quite weird the way the story just dropped and never seemed to go anywhere.
I gotta say, knowing that Mac was represented by Farrah’s madame (Gina someone, was it?), and having reread an old story about Lindsey from 16&P having the same manager and getting huge breast implants a few years back, I would not be at all surprised if this is how it went down. Clearly that woman is ruthless and classless, making her perfect for that sort of job. What’s she up to these days?
@Farrah’s– Gina is now Mama June’s manager and appears on June’s show! -The Ashley
Oh boy, that explains a lot! Thanks, The Ashley.
I knew it!
Who in the WORLD told her that was a good picture to use for the COVER of a book?? She looks like a deer in headlights.
I just want to know one thing. Who has the cringier book title/cover? Mack or Maci’s poetry book?
No thank you!
Does she talk about her animal neglect and abuse?
I agree that those stories are very sad and upsetting. She even states that she regrets sharing so much, and how putting all of this personal stuff out there really embarrassed her family and took a while to recover from.
So I guess what I don’t understand about all of these Teen Moms is…
WHY do they insist on writing these “memoirs”? Putting out MORE of these VERY personal stories?
It is OKAY to keep some things to yourself. Just because you are on a show on MTV, you arent obligated to tell everyone everything, just to make a buck.
Yeah yeah, I know….You’re doing it so some girl out there might read it and learn from your “journey” and make better choices….
I just don’t get it. I think you’re a sellout.
Ok I gotta know because I should be studying but will read this to procrastinate – does she mention Oakley at all?
Only in passing. When her mom died she said something like “she joined my 2 children from miscarriages” and that was the only mention in the whole book.
When was the other miscarriage? I know Oakley was the origin pregnancy that was being filmed for her 16&P episode.
Catch me up.
Who’s Oakley ?
?. Th-X
Her stillborn son prior to Gannon.
So she can talk about how she almost killed Broncs. But not about her pre planned Gannon baby Oakley? Wow.
How disturbing is it that you are severely depressed (or in her case, pregnant and possibly suffering an insulin crisis) and you are handcuffed and treated like a criminal? People who are depressed and suicidal need compassion. Not handcuffs, cop cars and humiliation.
It is one of the reasons I have never gone somewhere to ask for help when I have needed it most. I ended up just hurting myself enough to stop crying and the bad thoughts. There is no way that going somewhere with many people knowing why you are there and then also not being able to be released when you want. It happened to my husbands nephew amd he had to stay in a mental hospital and couldn’t leave. He said that the people there were crazy, which is understandable. I couldn’t imagine being pregnant and also having a health condition on top of being depressed stuck in a mental hospital and or arrested in the first place.
I would be hesitant to believe someone’s accounts of what happened that night who already is owning up to the fact that she was in such a bad mental state that her deadbeat boyfriend who doesn’t care about anything was actually concerned. So we are supposed to believe that she completely snapped out of it and every thought after that was totally coherent? I’m not buying it. Not defending the cops here, but she seemed pretty out of control and had people who also agreed that she was out of control. The cops did what they knew to do…once checking her into the proper hospital it is up to doctors to discern what next steps are for her…not cops. And I doubt her accounts if that night are accurate if she was in that bad of a mental state. Let’s use common sense people.
She’s not lying. This is the standard procedure. If a family member says you’re in crisis and cops arrest you for being suicidal and hospitals can hold you for 72 hours against your will. Most police have limited compassion for MH crises and have less knowledge of medical issues.
They were refusing to give her insulin. Come on now.
Says someone who admits she was in such a bad mental state that her deadbeat boyfriend had to intervene …that’s my point exactly…I highly doubt any of her recollection of that night is accurate.
There are laws in place that require to take people that are in imminent danger of hurting themselves to behavioral hospitals for evaluation. This is done for their own safety. Police never handcuffs pregnant women on the back, so on that, she’s being a drama queen, probably to make it more interesting for the book. As far as the insulin, that’s the first thing they would do at the hospital, so no, she wasn’t denied medical attention. On the contrary, she was given exactly the care she required at the moment.
Where are you from? They handcuff pregnant women from behind all the time and in certain areas it is required. Do you have any idea how little medical and MH training cops have on average and she lives in a southern state with less funding. Not at all surprising.