Jenelle Evans Makes Amends With Son Jace Following David Eason Split on Teen Mom Finale

During the season finale of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter Thursday, Jenelle sat down with her son Jace, after settling down in their new home in Las Vegas, to check in with the teen and see how he was doing after making the cross-country move.

Jenelle moved to Vegas after being granted a restraining order from ex-husband, David Eason, providing both her and her children protection from her ex, and allowing her to leave North Carolina. The pair shared a home, where they lived with their daughter, Ensley, 7, her son Kaiser, 10, and Jace, 15, whom he was accused of abusing before Child Protective Services eventually dropped the case.

“I feel a lot safer without David,” Jace told his mom.

While thanking her eldest for helping out around the house with chores and taking care of his younger siblings, Jenelle, 32, apologized for not ending her marriage to David sooner.

“I’m sorry, it didn’t happen sooner but I was trying,” she told Jace during the hear-to-heart. “I remember you saying, ‘I want all the drama to stop. [Child Protective Services] has been in my life since I’ve been little. I’m sick of them coming in and out.’ And you said you just want this all to be over with me.”

Jenelle, who tied the knot with David in 2017, announced her decision to separate from him in March in a TikTok video. Per the state of North Carolina, where pair were wed and where she resided at the time that she filed to separate, couples have to be separated for a year before they can divorce.

And while the couple are not officially divorced, the move to Las Vegas with her kids truly marked a new beginning for the Teen Mom star, whose ups and downs with David, 36, have been documented online.

Jace assured his mom that he’s “fine” now that David is gone, but fans of the Teen Mom and 16 & Pregnant franchise know these family wounds go deeper than that — with the Jenelle touching on the custody battle she faced with her mom, Barbara Evans, when Jace was just a baby, as scenes from their dramatic past flashed across the screen.

“I just wanted everything to like, just calm down. Get on a good point,” Jace said, “Everyone get on a, you know, good thing with everyone.”

Jenelle signed over custody of her infant son to her mother in 2010. Over the next decade, she and Barbara, 71, were in and out of court battling over custody of Jace. The MTV star regained custody of her son in March 2023.

He went on to say that at the time, he resented his mom for the way their relationship was, “But now that we’re all out of all this like crazy drama, it’s just calm. Everything is good now.”

“You know, I’ve made tons of mistakes all my life, but I just want you to realize like my intentions were never bad,” Jenelle said, apologizing to her son. “I always tried hard to fight for you. I just feel like you were robbed from me as a baby, you know.”

Eason isn’t the only man in her life she’s had drama with, as she also gave fans an update on Kaiser’s father, Nathan Griffith, to whom she was engaged, briefly before the pair split amid abuse allegations.

After Nathan failed to show up to meet with Kaiser during Thursday’s episode, and disappointing the 10-year-old, Jenelle revealed in an interview with PopCulture.com that Kaiser has had zero contact with his dad since he failed to show up for their scheduled reunion.

“Right now, since that has happened, Nathan has kind of been out of sight, out of mind,” Jenelle told PopCulture. “He’s getting his own help right now, and they currently haven’t reconnected since then.”

In July, Griffith was given a suspended sentence of 12 months minimum in prison after being kicked out of the Veteran’s Court program he was ordered into after he pleaded guilty in 2023 to attacking his sister via attempted assault by strangulation. Griffith was placed back on probation for “an indeterminate period not to exceed 24 months,” and was ordered again into a residential treatment facility. Griffith is scheduled to return to court this month.

When it comes to how Kaiser has been handling his rocky relationship with his father, the MTV personality said she “just [doesn’t] bring it up to him.”

“It’s kind of like I said — out of sight, out of mind. So it’s not affecting him mentally right now,” Jenelle added. “I did explain to Kaiser, ‘You know, your dad’s getting help and I want you to know your dad’s getting help. It’s not like he’s refusing to see you.’ And he understands that.”

For more of TooFab’s coverage of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, click here.