Cue the tears. Teen Mom OG’s Maci Bookout opened up about her 7-year-old son Bentley’s emotional reaction to her engagement to fiancé Taylor McKinney in a new interview with MTV.
As viewers witnessed on the Monday, August 22, season 6 premiere of the long-running reality series, the TV starlet’s beau of nearly four years — with whom she shares daughter Jayde, 14 months, and son Maverick, 2 months — finally asked for his love’s hand in marriage. Naturally, Bentley was touched after he found out that his mom would be tying the knot with McKinney.
“On the day that we got engaged, I wasn’t surprised that Bentley was excited, but I was kind of shocked that he was so emotional about it,” the 16 & Pregnant alum — who welcomed Bentley with ex-fiancé Ryan Edwards in 2008 — said, as seen in the clip above. “Like, it was a weight that was lifted off of his shoulders, which, at the time, made me kind of sad — but then again, I was super-excited that he was so excited about it.”
The Tennessee native believes her little guy’s heartrending response to McKinney’s proposal (which took place on Santa Monica Beach back in January) was the result of bottled up stress and pure relief.
“Bentley can be a lot like me and hold his emotions in and not really speak about them, so I think it was kind of a hidden emotion that he had had and a stress that he had had,” Bookout explained to MTV. “You know, when is he going to have a stepdad or a father figure that’s actually going to be there forever? And I know he wanted that to be Taylor. I just don’t think I ever really thought about the fact that he had been keeping that all in kinda the same way I was.”
Prior to dating McKinney, Bookout — who plans on walking down the aisle later this year — had a long string of boyfriends, several of which appeared on Teen Mom and were introduced to Bentley.
After splitting from Edwards, 27, in 2010, the Bulletproof author went on to date the hard-bodied Kyle King; they parted ways in 2012 after the fitness enthusiast posted pictures of her son on Twitter without permission. Prior to settling down with McKinney, Bookout was involved with motocross racer Kyle Regal. The pair called it quits in 2012 after only a few months of dating.
Watch the video above. Teen Mom OG airs on MTV Mondays at 10 p.m. ET.
