Ryan Edwards has come a long way in two year, and Maci Bookout— who was once arguably one of Ryan’s biggest critics— is singing his praises for both his sobriety and his relationship with fiancé Amanda Conner. In various new interviews promoting the new season Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, Maci also discussed how Ryan being in a happy relationship has positively affected their 16-year-old son Bentley.
“I think they’re fantastic together,” Maci told In Touch Weekly of Ryan and Amanda. “I think he finally picked the right one.”
“It’s a real blessing for Bentley to be able to see someone love his dad,” Maci told the magazine. “I don’t think that he has ever been able to actually witness his dad be in real true love and be, you know, taken care of and respected and loved. And to also see his dad be able to give that back. So, I love them together.”
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As ‘Teen Mom’ fans know, Maci and Ryan split when Bentley was a baby, and Ryan went on to marry Mackenzie Standifer and have two more kids with her. Ryan and Mackenzie broke up in 2023 but their divorce is still pending. Ryan and Amanda–who is about to give birth to Ryan’s daughter next month– officially became engaged a few weeks ago.
Although Ryan was in trouble with the law, on drugs and an absentee parent for years until getting sober in 2023, Maci says he’s now showing the world a different side of himself.
“It’s so nice to see him be who he was always meant to be,” Maci told Access Hollywood. “Enjoying life, gaining his confidence, and his belief in himself…it’s been amazing.”
In another interview released Monday, Maci told In Touch Weekly that she and Ryan have come a long way in their relationship as co-parents to Bentley.
“It’s definitely healthier,” she said of their relationship today. “We still have a long way to go, but it’s much more stable and stronger than it’s ever been, and than I ever thought it could be, to be honest. It took a lot of self-awareness and accountability, but also, patience and just a lot of individual work … everyone involved had to do a lot of work on themselves for all of us to be where we are now.”
Back in October, Amanda praised Maci and Ryan and applauded them for improving their co-parenting relationship.
“It comes down to coparenting and being there for Bentley and being there for the kids,” Amanda said during an interview. “I just feel like she really respects that. I don’t give her a hard time. I want her to see Ryan be a dad, and I want to see him coparent with Maci.”
Ryan, Maci and Amanda will all be featured on the new season of ‘Teen Mom: The Next Chapter,’ which premieres January 30 on MTV.
RELATED STORY: Ranking the Storylines for ‘Teen Mom: The Next Chapter’ Season 2B: From Most-Interesting to Snooze-Inducing
(Photos: MTV; Instagram)
31 Responses
Nothing like people in the comments being completely psyciho about people they don’t know while talking crap about the mental state of others. People nowadays have no self awareness
Ryan has supposedly abandoned taking care of his kids with Mackenzie because he can’t bring Amanda around them. He trashed their house like a psycho. He was a drug addict. God knows what else he did to her and his kids…. And Maci is here for it! She’s all about completely disrespecting Mackenzie and her kids. Maci is trash, I hate her
Another dig at Mack. What a hero you are Maci. Always the martyr.
Good for Ryan and Amanda both doing better. Truly. But I can’t stand Maci. She’s faker than a freaking mannequin.
You know Rhine does have children from his current marriage to Mack…. you don’t have to like her, you don’t have speak positively about her, but insulting her like this and making HIS kids feel worse is just cruel for cruel sake.
Also, this woman isn’t the saint that Maci is pushing her to be…
Maci is just a pick me.
Maci is a POS and the biggest liar on MTV. Her and her husband hate Ryan’s guts, but she was on the chopping block because she has no story lines. Remember when her story line was she was going to adopt another child, hell, all the viewers saw through that, then there was her car getting shot up at a gas station, people saw through that. She has NEVER HAD A REAL JOB IN HER LIFE.
Yes Maci.
Water sought it’s own level there.
2 junkies, both terrible parents, no accountability in their lives. Yep. He picked himself.
They’re not even in the honeymoon period yet. This is still lust and drug withdrawals.
Love how Ryan is getting all this praise while being a deadbeat to two of his kids. Fuck those kids, I guess.
This.
I really do not know how wealthy Ryans parents are. IDK if they are upper middle class wealthy or like millions wealthy. I’m sure they have spent a crap ton of money getting Ryan out of trouble and at some point, the money runs out. HOWEVER, I have to wonder if they are paying Maci off to try and help reform Ryan’s image.
Right! I wouldn’t be surprised if they offered to pay for college for Bentley in exchange for her praising and co-parenting with him, oh and maybe college for the oopsie babies too and that’s why Beer Taylor goes along with it? Actually I’m just going to assume it’s this because that’s the only thing that makes sense lol.
Maci is a fame whore. Anything to get herself positive (and always extremely PR’d) attention. Her most current cash cow/ticket to adoration is “supporting recovering ex (wow, what an amazing woman) and his equally messy new fiancée, who she has befriended (wow, maci is such a great friend) and aiding in the restoration of her sons paternal bond (wow, she is some woman). Freaking BARF. 🤮
She will say just about anything for money.
Why the heck does Taylor stay with Maci? I guess for the MTV paycheck.
Because his life would be a 9-5.
Minimum wage.
Back at his parents house.
Easier to stay with Maci.
Imagine being Beer Taylor and having your wife constantly gush over her deadbeat ex that threatened to kill you, but her almost never praising you for stepping in and raising her son for the vast majority of his life while said ex was doing heroin and terrorizing people.
Awesome post. Maxi totally still wants Ryan
It’s pretty disgusting that she’s pretending that Ryan is a stand up individual and all the sh*tshow with Mackenzie never happened. He’s still a deadbeat to two of his kids whose home he destroyed. He will never not be a POS.
Why is she going so hard for this relationship
Wow, nice of Maci to completely disregard how he treated Makenzie and put those kids in danger.
It’s cool though since she wasn’t “the right one”.
Yay for them, I guess. Yawn.
When is MTV going to dump this trash? Can you not find something better for viewers?
It is callled Music Television but I guess videos now go straight to youtube. So they had to fill it with something. Damn I’m old.
When people stop watching it. I stopped when Brianna and her loser family came on the show because my one pig limit was already filled by Kail.
One pig limit 🤣
“One pig limit” has me dying omg
🤣🤣🤣
Girl you’re just trying to continue that MTV paycheck without exposing Bentleys therapy because of all the backlash.
Why is she sucking up so bad?
Because she has no storyline and she needs that MTV paycheck. Remember when Ryan told Taylor he was going to put a bullet in his head, yep, good ole Maci and Taylor what they won’t do for a paycheck from MTV. She even sold her own son out just for a paycheck. She is a severe alcoholic who needs that $.