Jenelle Evans opened up about the decision to send her 15-year-old son, Jace Evans, to live with his father, Andrew Lewis, in an exclusive interview with In Touch.
“It was a lot of anxiety,” Jenelle, 33, said of putting her teenage son on a plane to Florida. “Jace has had his own problems since he’s been younger. And you know he’s been living from household to household.”
Jenelle first rose to fame on the Teen Mom franchise in 2009, where she documented her journey as a teenage mother during her pregnancy with Jace. After giving birth to Jace, Jenelle continued to enjoy her youth and live her life, signing over the custody of her son to her mother, Barbara Evans, in 2010. Nearly a decade later, Jenelle and her mom, 71, “decided together” that she would take over guardianship.
“I think it’s time that he goes and reconnects with his other side of his family,” the MTV personality explains. “So that was one of the main reasons why he went.”
As far as Jace’s life in Florida, Jenelle says her son is “settling in good” but will be returning to Las Vegas, Nevada, “next month,” where the Teen Mom star lives with her other kids, 10-year-old Kaiser and 8-year-old Ensley, from other relationships.
“I asked him how he’s doing,” she reveals. “He said he’s doing fine. He said he misses being at home, but he also likes being over there at the same time because he’s in Florida.”
Jenelle’s comments came just hours after she responded to fans who criticized her decision to send Jace to live with his father in Florida and accused her of not being able to “handle” her son.
“My son has been dealing with mental health disorders since he’s been 10 years old. He was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 10,” she told viewers in a TikTok posted on Wednesday, May 14. “Most recently in 2023, he was diagnosed with major depressive disorder, along with his ADHD and defiant disorder.”
Jenelle described that “incidents,” which she didn’t elaborate on, began when Jace was 10 years old and explained the situation as “pretty bad.” In the TikTok clip, the mom of three revealed to her followers that Child Protective Services (CPS) gave her custody after Jace “acted out at every household he went too,” which eventually led CPS to “throw their hands up and drop the case.”
After she initiated her separation from ex David Eason in 2024, Jenelle moved her family to Las Vegas for a “fresh start” and to “get away from the negativity, the fear, the pain, the anxiety [and] the chaos that has been caused” by her ex.
Although things were calm for “three to four weeks” in their new Sin City home, another incident soon shattered the peace. Following several troubling episodes, she finally reached out to Jace’s father.
“I said, ‘Hey, I need help,’” she recalled. “I was in a panic attack. I was crying my eyes out, and I was like, ‘For once, I need your help. I need you to take over this situation because all of us have put forth effort into as much as we can give.’”
Jenelle is also marking a fresh start for herself as she’s celebrating her divorce from David, 36, with an event titled “I do. I did. I’m done,” symbolizing closing a chapter and starting anew. The divorce party is at Spearmint Rhino in New York City and special guests include TikTok creators, Teen Mom cast members, and possibly Farrah Abraham.
Guests 21 and older can RSVP for complimentary guest list access at spearmintrhinonyc.com/jenelle on a first-come, first-served basis.
