Ryan Edwards’ overdose played out on Teen Mom: The Next Chapter — a harrowing incident that left son Bentley feeling “angry,” according to Maci Bookout.
On the Wednesday, September 6, episode of the Teen Mom spinoff show, Maci, 31, received the news that her ex had overdosed on drugs just days after he chose to leave court-ordered rehab early.
“Before [Ryan] went to rehab, [Bentley] was very concerned and very worried,” Maci told her friends about the former couple’s 15-year-old son’s reaction to his dad’s ongoing substance abuse problems. “He kept saying, ‘I don’t want him to have to deal with this alone. I’m worried about him.’ And then once he was in Texas [in rehab], like the rest of us, it’s like a breath of fresh air. We don’t have to worry for a little bit.”
However, Ryan’s decision to leave treatment — which Maci surmised was due to him wanting to be with family and have the ability to contact his lawyer amid his contentious divorce from estranged wife Mackenzie Edwards — was one that had grave consequences. On April 7, Ryan was found “unconscious and unresponsive” in his vehicle, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Us Weekly at the time. Maci told her friends that Ryan had to be revived by Narcan — a medication that reverses opioid overdoses — twice.
After Maci told her eldest son that his father had overdosed, Bentley — who had just seen his dad several days prior when Ryan came to his baseball game — was “just angry,” she recalled.
“The way things have been going the last four or five months and how good things were going, even in the midst of all this crap with [Ryan’s] soon-to-be ex-wife … I think Bentley is angry because he’s like I used to be,” Maci explained. “Like, ‘Man, do you realize how much potential you have?’ I just think for Bentley, he’s just like, ‘Damn, 10 pieces of the puzzle had been put in the right place and you still couldn’t get the five pieces left in there.”
Ryan — who was arrested for a DUI and possession of a controlled substance at the time — was found with a bag containing a “crystal type substance,” the affidavit read, as well as a “second small bag of what appeared to be a blue powder.” The MTV personality also “advised he snorted a powder before waking up in the back of an ambulance.”
During Wednesday’s episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, Ryan got candid — and emotional — when talking about his addiction.
“Heroin. Using that s—t’s rough. I mean, it could kill you and you wouldn’t even know it,” he said in a confessional, sharing how he didn’t want to go down that path again.
Maci, for her part, cried for both Ryan and their son. (Maci also shares two children with husband Taylor McKinney.)
“When I found out that Ryan had overdosed, that’s truly the first time I was genuinely scared. Having to have that conversation with Bentley, and just … knowing how I felt [finding out] but Ryan’s not my dad. All of it is so hard,” she said, breaking down in tears. “Bentley feels all of that times a million. And he’s a kid.”
After his overdose and DUI arrest, Ryan was sentenced to nearly one year in jail after pleading guilty to harassing Mackenzie, 26, earlier this year. (Mackenzie, who shares two children with Ryan, filed for divorce from her estranged husband in February.) Ryan was released to a halfway house in June, where he was later spotted with Mackenzie over the summer. Last month, Bentley shared a photo playing golf with Ryan, Taylor and Ryan’s dad, Larry Edwards.
“Family,” the teen captioned the image.
If you or anyone you know is facing substance abuse issues, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for free and confidential information 24/7.
