Jenelle's partying and wild outbursts have had viewers concerned about her children since the beginning. However, when Jenelle confessed that CPS had been called to her home 20 times, fans began wondering if her children were in danger.
Since she first appeared on 16 and Pregnant in 2010, Jenelle Evans has been making headlines ever since. Fans have watched closely for almost a decade as Jenelle struggled through relationships, legal woes, and the arrivals of her three youngest children.
She's been a consistent source of camera-ready drama from the beginning. But did she and her husband David Eason go too far this time?
Jenelle’s ability to parent her young children has been the most frequent source of friction between Jenelle and those around her. Her "party girl" behavior as a teen left her mother, Barbara Evans, and fans questioning if she was ready to be a mom.
Starcasm uncovered her MySpace page from her 16 and Pregnant days and it contained shocking confessions, as Teen Mom Talk Now previously reported.
The "autobiography" on Jenelle’s old account reads:
"I’m jenelle, and I’m not anything You Can Come Remotely Close to...I Have the Biggest Heart, and I Hate Hurting People’s Feelings. I’m Very Sexual, and I Can Be a Perv. Also, I Have a Dirty mind<3 Oh, and I’ll always Say what’s on my mind! Even if it is Sexual. I’m done With Being a Sidewalk you can Step all over. Try again. I’m unbelievably Tacky and I’m So Ditzy it’s unreal…"
It continues:
"…Sorry, I’m me. I’m Horrible at First impressions...Give me a chance, and I Promise I’ll Give You What You deserve. I’m not conceited, it’s just my time to shine, and if you’ll be my sky, i’ll be your brightest star. I Know Where I Stand, and I Know Who I am, and I don’t need anyone to Tell me otherwise. I Usually Hold things in and Just deal, until I explode, and I need to Find a way to Fix that…I’m a Good Person, and I Have the Biggest Heart, But many People don’t Get to See that Side of me, Because They don’t Care to. I make mistakes every single day, I’m only Human, But I eventually Try and Fix them. I Will Knock Your Teeth down Your Throat if you mess With my Friends or Try to Get With my Boyfriend, and That’s a Promise…"
As a teen, Jenelle also enjoyed answering questions on Formspring, a site that allowed users, or in this case, fans, to ask anything anonymously.
One submission read, “My opinion is that you as a person should be able to do what you want that makes you happy as long as it doesn’t affect jase negatively i still drink and i’m a mom, you just have to prioritize, just be the best mom you can be, and you’ll never regret.”
Jenelle responded: “Jace yu mean.. and yes i make sure when i DO smoke im not around him and when i get back home im not high. plussss.. the only time i DO smoke is after my mom gets home from work and my mom is watching Jace for the night and he is already in bed.” While Jenelle initially boasts about her ability to mother, other posts brag about her misdeeds.
When asked by one user, “I dont get how any mother can smoke weed when they are prego and endanger there child like that. please tell me that one,” Jenelle fired back: “uhmm… drinking while yr prego is WAY WORSE then smokin a lil bud. and some doctors even RECOMMEND TO THEIR PATIENTS that they should smoke if they are nauseous.”
When one question on Formspring alleges that “pot does effedt a baby” and continues to tell Jenelle, “when your kids r retards youll feel it.” Jenelle is unapologetic about her drug use, defending her actions and her son: “ohk, he isnt a retard now. he will never be, trust me ive done the research. ive even done a college paper on why to legalize marijuana. yu need to research the PROS AND CONS. not just the CONS.”
Jenelle’s affinity for marijuana has followed her into adulthood. During her appearance on Vince Russo’s podcast, one of the hosts brings up the fact that many of Jenelle’s “haters” have accused her of smoking weed while pregnant with Ensley, and she boldly confirms it.
“[Viewers] were saying it was at the hospital when [Ensley] was born,” the host asks. “Is that true? If the baby tests positive, you can’t take the baby home, right?”
“Oh yeah!” Jenelle admits. “I’m not going to lie about that.” She reveals: “I tested positive for THC and Ensley did not test positive, I did. So [Child Protective Services asked], ‘Did you smoke while you were pregnant?’ I said ‘I did within the past 30 days… I have really bad esophageal spasms and I throw up every 5 minutes, can’t even eat.’ [CPS] said, ‘Okay, some moms do that; we’re not here to judge.’”
She revealed that CPS planned to do a wellness check on Ensley after she was born. “Everything [was fine]; they closed the case,” she said. She revealed that CPS had come to her home numerous times due to “haters online who say that [she abuses] her kids.”
Although Jenelle’s marijuana use clearly doesn’t faze her at all, it has worried members of her family. Nathan Griffith’s mother and grandmother to Kaiser, Doris Griffith has recently been in custody battles with Jenelle over her grandson. In the papers, she brings up Jenelle’s marijuana use.
“DSS became involved due to Ensley testing positive for marijuana and opened an investigation,” court documents filed by Doris Griffith read, according to Radar Online. “Upon information and belief, both Plaintiff and David had positive drug screens for marijuana.”
Doris claimed that Jenelle “has an extensive history of drug use,” that returned while she was pregnant with Ensley. She continued, “Upon the birth of Ensley, the newborn tested positive for marijuana.” Doris eventually dropped the suit against Jenelle, likely because of financial reasons.
However, Jenelle has continued to face allegations of child abuse and confrontations with CPS, especially in the most recent episodes of Teen Mom 2. In the episode "Unicorn Poop,” Jenelle and her family head out on a ski trip to celebrate her birthday.
She has her hands full with her three children Ensley, Jace, and Kaiser, as well as her step-daughter Maryssa. But she and David are accustomed to having a large entourage, so they packed up the car and jetted off on their trip. Although things started off well, it didn’t take long for tensions to rise.
During breakfast the following morning, fans were shocked by David’s short temper with his step-children.
“The weekend was going great, but last night, the kids were acting up and we didn’t get any sleep,” Jenelle narrated in a voiceover. “We were planning to do something fun before we went home today, but David and I are exhausted.”
“These kids are f*cking driving me nuts,” David says while cooking. “They’re about to go to their bedrooms to take a nap. ‘Cause ever since I woke up, they’ve been running around, like, going crazy.”
In the next room, Kaiser appears to be playing on the couch. “I don’t understand what his problem is!” Jenelle exclaims.
After Jenelle and David get upset with Kaiser for spilling his juice, Kaiser says that he has to “go poo.” The parents’ response left fans in dismay.
“No! You already did this morning!” Jenelle exclaims, but Kaiser says, “I’m going to poop in my pants.”
David is not having it. “If you poop in your pants, you’re going to be in big trouble mister. You just went to the potty. Stop it. Eat your food.” Viewers were shocked to see David limit the toddler’s bathroom visits.
“Kaiser says he needs to poop and they said he couldn’t go potty. He says I’m gonna poop my pants and he gets told he’ll be in trouble if he does…yet they won’t let him to go to the bathroom. What a mind f*ck!” wrote Twitter user @HoeStephan.
Nathan’s girlfriend Ashley responded, “This isn’t the first time kaiser told [Nathan] & I he was not allowed to go potty. Probably why when he pees the bed at night he tries to hide it by changing his clothes and hiding them.”
Ashley added, “Before someone tries to poke holes in my story , Kaiser did not use the exact words ‘I’m not allowed.’ I stated that referencing what he has told us multiple times. ANY time he says he has to go potty [Nathan] takes him. No matter how many times a day he says it.”
Nathan himself got involved, sharing on Twitter that he was attempting to get CPS involved. After the episode aired, he tweeted, “It’s sad that CPS of Columbus county will not even inform me of the open investigation they have on her. I have called multiple times reaching out. Yes, I’m posting this in hopes someone does something. Plus, some of the sheriffs refused to go out there because no one answers.”
Nathan’s tweets regarding CPS perfectly foreshadowed Jenelle’s current controversy!
Despite the outrage from Kaiser’s father and his family, some fans came to the defense of the Teen Mom 2 couple.
Jenelle retweeted user @hannahpolakowski who shared: “The dinner table scene where Kaiser said he had to use the bathroom reminded me of my daughter. Every dinner she would say she had to go just so she didn’t have to eat. And once we caught on to what she was doing, we started saying no too. She grew out of that phase eventually.”
Though Jenelle received public sympathy over the incident, she quickly lost the goodwill she had earned.
Jenelle ignited greater controversy when she shared a very different kind of experience from another fan who rushed to her defense.
In a post that was retweeted by Jenelle, user @JADRunyan wrote, “My daughter (11) has an eating disorder… Was hospitalized for it for three months this year.. She did this frequently (going to the bathroom) to use eating disorder behaviors. Good for you for catching on and not allowing him to go. I say ALL the time she isn’t allowed to go.”
Fans were outraged that Jenelle would imply that her young son’s behavior is reminiscent of an eating disorder. However, their anger at this particular episode did not stop there.
After breakfast, David and Jenelle are clearly at their wits’ end. The couple is done with vacation and ready to go. “We’re going home,” Jenelle says. “We’re just going home. You just told them to stop.”
Once the family is packed up in the car, the parents’ sour moods continue. “Why do they have these cameras in here?” David asks as Jenelle starts taking them down. “We’re not doing anything or going anywhere, ‘cause the kids have not earned their stay. They have ruined thier welcome. So it’s over, you guys. We’re going home ‘cause you don’t know how to f*cking act right.”
He starts sarcastically clapping and says, “Give yourself a pat on the back! Are you happy now? ‘Cause you better be. This is the way it’s going to go from now on when you don’t act right. Take your a** to the house.”
Many found David’s treatment of the children to be unsettling, but his angry outbursts were just the beginning of the controversy from the episode.
“Jenelle and David drinking and driving?” wrote reddit user cuziamgointobeFAMOUS. They attached images of Jenelle and David’s car, as well as a shot from inside their cabin rental. In an image from the car, there appears to be an empty glass bottle sitting in the cup holder. In the image from the cabin, it’s clear that Jenelle and David have a case of Corona beer. Though there is only the implication, fans were furious to think that David and Jenelle might be drinking and driving with their young children.
The behavior is uncharacteristic of the couple, given their recent outrage at Barbara Evans for a similar incident.
In one Teen Mom 2 episode, Jenelle vents about her mother Barbara’s drinking habits. She complains to a producer, Kristin, that she has concerns that Barbara has gotten behind the wheel after having drinks.
Jenelle vents, “You know how I’ve been trying to see Jace. Well, last weekend, I said, ‘Can I have Jace?’ And [Barbara said], ‘You should have called me earlier during the day. I have plans with my friends, and it’s Cinco de Mayo.’”
She continues, “So we get in the car, and we’re going to the Mexican restaraunt. And when David was inside, he saw her drinking wine, and David took pictures from far away; my mom didn’t see him...So then I went in there, and I was like, ‘Hey! You were drinking, and now you’re about to drive!’ And [Barbara said] ‘I had one sip of my wine, they just put it on the table.’”
Jenelle countered her mother, saying, “‘That’s drinking! Like, what are you talking about?’ So, then after that, I went back to her house. I walked up to the door and knocked on it, no one answered, I knocked again no one answered.”
David looked into the window of Barbara’s garage and saw that her car was parked inside. That’s when Jenelle decided to call the cops to see what was going on. “Then I ended up calling the police when I was there. The police came, and they were like, ‘What’s your concern?’”
Jenelle told them, “‘I don’t know if my mom is in there, like, passed out while the kids are in there… so it’s concerning.” The police knocked on the door, and, according to Jenelle, “[Barbara] opens the door, and says, ‘I don’t want [Jenelle] on my property!’ After not answering the door for two hours!”
Jenelle explains, “You know, ever since that argument, she really hasn’t answered any of my calls. Her attorney’s probably really scared, because I don’t have to hand in any evidence I’m going to use in court unless I filmed it without my mom’s knowledge,” she says, referring to the upcoming custody case.
And after 7 years of filming Teen Mom 2, Jenelle certainly has a great deal of footage on file. However, will that change soon now that David has been fired from the show?
“David Eason’s personal comments do not reflect the views of MTV. With six weeks left of production on Teen Mom 2, effective immediately, we are ending our relationship with him,” read a statement by MTV released in February. This was in response to his transphobic, homophobic rant on Twitter.
“Lmao why don’t you go tell the homo and transgender parents to start teaching their kids better morals? Oh I forgot thats supposed to be normal,” David wrote in a recent tweet which followed months of bigoted comments from the star.
One user responded, “Who are you to say what’s normal or what’s moral? Are you going to teach your children to hate gay and transgender people?” and David revealed that he plans to raise Jace, Kaiser, Ensley, and Maryssa to be homophobic and bigoted.
“No, Im going to teach them not to associate with them or be that way…” he tweeted. “If you lay down with dogs you get up with fleas.” When called out for being homophobic, he showed off his impressive vocabulary by replying, “Never said anything about being scared [of] homos…Homophobic? You really lost it now, im not scared [of] s**t especially a homo.”
After David’s Twitter rant, fans demanded that MTV take action. A petition calling for MTV to remove David from the show gained over 9,000 signatures. The demand apparently grew too much for MTV to ignore and David was fired.
His dramatic departure from the show was a highlight of this week’s episode of Teen Mom 2. As a police officer knocks on their door, Jenelle tells a producer, “There is nothing I did so he can wait. I’m so sick of this bulls**t. I’ve been here at my house, not worrying about no one. I haven’t hit no one I haven’t threatened no one.”
When David answers the door, the officer explains that he is conducting a security check on the children. Rather than react calmly, the couple takes the news with anger.
David slams the door in his face and accuses Nathan of calling the police. “Let me get a hold of Nathan,” David rages. “I’m gonna bust his motherf**king head open.”
When the officer refuses to leave, Jenelle yells at him to get off her property. “We have been harassed by everyone on the Internet,” she shrieks. “By you guys, by my ex… We don’t need it anymore. I’ve been harassed about this ever since I’ve moved here last February. CPS has been here 20 times because of 20 reports and they closed every single one of them. Everything’s fine.”
However, viewers are left wondering if everything is truly fine at the Evans-Eason estate. 20 visits from CPS? Is there any truth to the saying, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire”?
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