As we reported earlier, the tense relationship between Maci Bookout and her jackass baby daddy Ryan Edwards took another turn for the worse this week.
The trouble started on Tuesday during filming for this season’s Teen Mom OG reunion special.
In order to comply with anti-Covid regulations, Maci’s segments were shot in Tennessee, and the plan was to assemble all of the principal players on a makeshift set.
Unfortunately, Ryan and wife Mackenzie Standifer refused to take part, and so, the climactic showdown didn’t go according to plan.
Instead of Maci and Taylor McKinney doing battle with Ryan and Mackenzie, the McKinneys were forced to square off against Ryan’s parents.
But if you were hoping for dramatic fireworks, fear not – the sh-t still hit the fan in a major way.
“At first, MTV wanted Mackenzie and Ryan to square off in-person on the set with Maci and Taylor, but Ryan absolutely refused,” a production source tells The Ashley’s Reality Roundup.
“Then they asked Mackenzie to go out on stage solo and film a scene with Taylor and Maci but she said no," the insider added.
"You could cut the tension with a knife when they were all sitting out there,” another insider tells The Ashley.
"But everything was OK until the very end of the segment. Maci kept giving vague answers and was making it clear that she was upset but would not say why.”
That’s when things really got ugly.
It seems Taylor stepped in, and he did not mince words when telling Jen and Larry exactly what he thinks of their son.
Believe it or not, it seems the situation nearly came to blows as McKinney offered Ryan’s dad the opportunity to step to.
"[Taylor] kind of got up and eventually asked Larry if he wanted to take things outside,” the source said.
“It didn’t get that far, though. Nothing got physical.”
Still. Wow.
“He told them Ryan is a ‘piece of s–t’ and that he, unlike Ryan, has been there for Bentley for a long time,” the insider added.
“He told Larry and Jen that Ryan should be more like he is.”
The situation escalated further this morning, when Taylor reached out to The Hollywood Gossip exclusively and shared his side of the story.
He avoided naming names, so as not to run afoul of the big wigs at MTV, but we think you’ll have no trouble figuring out who he’s talking about.
“The source comes off as very one-sided so you can probably guess who that is," McKinney told us.
"You’ll have to see the reunion play out on TV but one thing I am always going to do is stand up for my wife and kids."
He ended his remarks on an ominous note.
"You come for my wife and kids?" Taylor says, leaving no doubt where he stands in this ongoing feud. "I’m coming for you.”
Needless to say, it sounds like this situation is far from over.
And Taylor’s not the only one who’s made it clear that he’s not the least bit afraid of the opposition.
“I really wanted to post some ‘petty b-tch’ (and hilarious) comments, but I’ll wait until they can tell me the definition of ‘petty’ without Googling it and reading it aloud. [microphone emoji],” she tweeted today.
Yes, Maci even added a microphone emoji, to let the world know that she’s dropping the mic on these fools, a la Eminem at the end of Eight Mile.
Sadly, we may never know what sort of "petty b-tch" comments Maci had in mind, but fortunately, she laid a mild smackdown in the tweet.
Suggesting that Ryan and Mackenzie literally don’t know the meaning of the word "petty"?
It may not be as funny as the shots Maci wanted to fire, but it’s still pretty damn funny.
And we still have the reunion special to look forward to.
Sadly, it won’t feature the Ryan vs. Maci showdown we’ve been looking forward to, but hopefully, we’ll see a moment of reckoning for Ryan’s parents.
We know – they used to be fan favorites, or at least offered a nice counter-balance to the mess that is Ryan, but the fact is, those two have been messing up royally in recent weeks.
The low point might have come when Jen and Larry announced that they would take Ryan’s side over Bentley’s in all situations.
Not modeling the kind of behavior you would expect from people who are supposed to be the voice of reason in this scenario.
We’d long suspected that they were enabling Ryan’s bad habits, but we had no idea that the situation had gotten so bad.
These days, it looks like Maci and Taylor are the only good guys in Bentley’s life who are willing to fight for him.
Of course, he seems like a smart kid, so he probably already knows that.