She only wants the best for her family. Barbara Evans spoke with Us Weekly about her recently settled custody agreement with daughter Jenelle Evans over the Teen Mom 2 star’s 7-year-old son, Jace.
“I just want people to know that I’m not trying to keep Jace away from my daughter. I have to protect him from certain situations. I don’t hate my daughter,” Barbara tells Us. “All of this was because I love Jace. Jace has a great life at my house: He’s going to school — he finishes in a couple weeks — he has friends now, he’s in Boy Scouts and he’s going to summer camp! He’s so excited for that.”
As documented on MTV’s hit docuseries, Jenelle, 25, signed over custody of Jace to her mom in 2010. Prior to their new custody agreement, Jenelle and Barbara frequently argued over the young mother spending time with Jace, as the 16 and Pregnant alum did not have court-mandated visitation rights.
On Wednesday, May 24, the Brunswick County Clerk of Court in North Carolina told RadarOnline.com that Jenelle and Barbara came to a mutual agreement. While Jenelle didn’t regain full custody as she had hoped, the MTV personality — who is also mom of son Kaiser, 2, with ex-fiance Nathan Griffith, and daughter Ensley, 4 months, with current fiance David Eason — was given more visitation time with her eldest son.
“I think that in the end, our whole family will be very happy,” Barbara tells Us of the agreement. “My main concern was that my daughter and I would have a very drawn out court battle, and luckily that was not the case. I love her and don’t want to fight with her in a courtroom! It actually went much more smoothly than I could have hoped.”
According to Jenelle, she will have Jace on the weekends, holidays and during the summer. “I’m not restricted to when my mom says I can have my son,” she told E! News on Wednesday. “And at the moment that’s all I care about. [I] just want to spend time with my son. He will be home one day, but today wasn’t the day, sadly.”
Despite their optimism about the future, Barbara tells Us that her relationship with Jenelle is still tense. “It’s very, very strained right now, as it usually is. She hates me. I think as time goes on, it will get better between us,” the North Carolina resident says. “I have to believe that because she’s my daughter. I’m not sure why Jenelle doesn’t see that I have the best home to raise Jace in. … I do not think Jenelle is putting Jace’s well-being before her happiness. Of course she wants Jace to live with her, but she isn’t thinking that my house may be a better place, especially while she’s with David.”
Barbara adds, “Everyone on my side of the family [is] on my side. David’s side of the family is pretty much not on my side.”
Still, Jenelle’s lawyer Dustin Sullivan tells Us that his client is content with the custody agreement. “We were pleased with the result of everything as well,” the attorney says. “It was a long process from filing to having a our chief judge sign off on the order took over a year and a half. These types of cases aren’t handled very quickly typically. I think as a result of a year and a half of working on the case, I think it was a good result for everyone involved.”
