Well, Jenelle! ‘Teen Mom 2’ Alum Jenelle Evans, Mom Barbara’s Ups and Downs


She’s seen her with Kieffer! Teen Mom 2 alum Jenelle Evans and her mom, Barbara Evans, have been feuding over custody of Jenelle’s son, Jace — in addition to many other issues — for over a decade.

After giving birth to her eldest son in August 2009, Jenelle signed over legal custody of Jace to her mom. The dramatic decision played out on the former MTV personality’s 2010 episode of 16 and Pregnant. At the time, the North Carolina native realized that she needed her mom’s help in raising her son while she partied with friends. (Jace’s father, Andrew Lewis, is not involved in his son’s life.)

The frequent and intense drama between the mother-daughter duo was on Teen Mom 2 for years, with Barbara and Jenelle often fighting about Jace, as well as the Wal-Mart employee’s disapproval of the men in her daughter’s life. While Jace has lived with his grandmother since he was born, Jenelle moved out of her mom’s house in the early 2010s and would often get yelled at by her mother for not spending enough time with her son.

The Read Between the Lines author, for her part, was also using drugs — often with her then-boyfriend, Kieffer Delp, whom Barbara frequently feuded with (and famously once kicked out of her house, along with Jenelle). “High, high, ya both high!” she screamed at the couple in the now-iconic scene.

While Barbara was referring to Jenelle’s marijuana use at the time, the social media influencer soon got into heavier drugs, including heroin.

“I think my low point was with my drug issue and the whole heroin thing,” the OnlyFans content creator told E! News in 2017 while reflecting on her substance use. “I almost overdosed and died. I was trying to run away from my problems.”

While Jenelle got sober from heroin, she has still dealt with her fair share of relationship issues — leading to even more tension between her and her mom.

In 2013, the TV personality began dating Nathan Griffith, with whom she welcomed son Kaiser the following year. Despite getting engaged to the military veteran, the couple soon split amid an array of issues, including Griffith’s arrest for domestic violence in March 2015 and Jenelle’s own arrest on domestic violence charges that May.

Later that year, Jenelle began a relationship with her now-husband, David Eason. The couple — whose own rocky relationship has made headlines for years — welcomed daughter Ensley in January 2017. They tied the knot in September of that year. Barbara, who previously called Eason “the worst boyfriend [Jenelle’s] ever had” during an episode of TM2, was not invited to the wedding due to the drama over Jace.

“She’s very upset. I know she is and she … makes side comments here and there saying, ‘Well, you’re not inviting me to your wedding, so I don’t even want to talk about it,’” Jenelle exclusively told Us Weekly one month prior to her and Eason’s nuptials. “And I’m like, ‘I’m not trying to hurt your feelings, I’m just telling you this is what I need to do to get ready’ … I can’t forgive someone that’s just not going to give me back my son, so, and it’s still going on. It hasn’t been resolved. And if I had custody of him now maybe I would have invited her, but I’m not at the moment.”

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Despite occasional moments of reconciliation, Barbara and Jenelle have only kept feuding about custody of Jace in the years since. Keep scrolling to see their biggest ups and downs over the years: