EXCLUSIVE! ‘Teen Mom’ Star Ryan Edwards & Ex Mackenzie Headed to Trial After Failing to Agree at Mediation About Amanda Conner Being Around Their Kids
The bitter divorce and custody battle between Teen Mom star Ryan Edwards and his soon-to-be-ex-wife Mackenzie Standifer has hit yet another major roadblock.
The Ashley can exclusively reveal that Ryan and Mackenzie will be heading to trial after the exes failed to come to an agreement about the custody agreement of their two shared children, Jagger and Stella, on Friday. The Ashley can confirm that Ryan and Mack attended a mediation session (after having it continued several times), where each party and their attorney tried to work out a custody plan for the kids. (Due to their joint restraining order, Ryan and Mackenzie likely couldn’t be in the same room together, even during mediation.)
“Unfortunately, the mediation didn’t work,” a source told The Ashley. “Ryan and Mackenzie agreed on everything…except how Ryan’s girlfriend Amanda [Conner] would be worked into the kids’ lives. That was the dealbreaker.”
As The Ashley has previously reported, Amanda is not currently allowed to be around Jagger and Stella during Ryan’s visits with them. (Currently, the kids stay overnight at Ryan’s parents’ house, where Ryan is allowed to visit and stay over with them, as long as Amanda is not present.) According to The Ashley’s source, Ryan and Mack were trying to work out a plan where Amanda could eventually be incorporated into the kids’ lives.
“Mackenzie and Ryan went back and forth a few times with offers, but Ryan refused any offer that didn’t immediately include Amanda being able to be around the kids,” the source said.
As The Ashley previously reported, Amanda just regained full legal custody of her 11-year-old son, after not having custody of him for the majority of his life, due to her addiction and legal issues. Amanda recently took to TikTok to show proof that her recent drug tests were clean, stating that Mack still thinks that she and Ryan are using drugs.
Amanda– who is allowed to be around Bentley, the teenage son Ryan shares with Maci Bookout– has insisted that, despite Mackenzie’s alleged concerns for Stella and Jagger’s safety, both she and Ryan are clean and sober.
“I’ve seen so many pages talk about why I specifically am not allowed to be around [Ryan’s youngest two] children,” Amanda said. “Take it, the other party does state that we are on [drugs] and that is not true at all.
According to Amanda’s recent TikTok video, Ryan is drug-tested at his probation meetings and regularly attends Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings and other classes and virtual meetings related to his sobriety.
Fans have been split in their opinions on whether or not Amanda should be allowed to be around Ryan and Mackenzie’s kids. While many have applauded Amanda (and Ryan) for being sober for over a year, others have expressed online that the couple getting regular, unsupervised visits with Jagger and Stella, shortly after having a new baby and getting custody of Amanda’s son, may be too much to handle for the couple.
“Mackenzie suggested a slow transition into letting Amanda be around the kids and letting Ryan have them unsupervised,” the source told The Ashley. “It’s not really the drug thing that Mackenzie is worried about. She isn’t questioning their sobriety. She’s concerned about them getting all that added responsibility at once and her kids being involved.”
The Ashley can confirm that Ryan and Mack’s lawyers realized that the mediation would not work and that no agreement would be made, due to the Amanda situation.
“The lawyers pulled the plug on mediation and decided it would have to go to trial,” the source said. “That probably won’t happen for a few months, so the divorce and custody situation is going to be stretched out even longer, possibly even until after Amanda has the baby in February.”
As The Ashley previously reported, Amanda and Rya
