says he’s coming to terms with the massive mistakes he’s made in his life, particularly surrounding drug use and his (lack) of parenting his son Bentley during the early years of the teen’s life.

The  dad recently appeared with his baby mama  on the Dad Up Podcast to discuss the current state of their co-parenting relationship. During the episode, Ryan was asked about the regrets he has in his life, to which he said he doesn’t only regret using drugs, he also regrets “thinking drugs were more important than my kid.” 

“My whole life revolved around drugs and you know, I wish it never happened but it did and I cannot go back and change it, so you know, I’m just going to live with it,” he said, adding that, before getting sober, he “didn’t know how to function without drugs.”   

“You know, now it’s a lot easer and it’s just kind of normal,” he said, later revealing in the episode that he’s had conversations with Bentley about his past addiction problems. “ … It’s not been like, in-depth conversations, but it was just kind of like, ‘Hey, this is kind of why, you know, I wasn’t there,’ and stuff like that.” 

As ‘Teen Mom’ fans are aware, Ryan has battled drug addiction for years. Despite multiple trips to rehab and jail, Ryan seemed unable to get sober. In 2023, Ryan was arrested numerous times for drug-related crimes (in addition harassing his soon-to-be ex-wife ). In April 2023, Ryan suffered a near-fatal drug overdose in his truck just days after leaving a court-ordered rehab. He was later arrested for DUI, possession of a controlled substance and violating his probation.

Maci— who earlier in the podcast discussed how Ryan’s drug use prevented him from bonding with Bentley— stated that their son has seen how drugs took over Ryan’s life and will not want to repeat his father’s mistakes.

“I do feel like there’s such a large part of that where Bentley is going to learn so much from you and overcoming this and sort of starting fresh,” Maci said, who added that Ryan was obviously not happy or confident during the times he was using drugs. “He [was] not the Ryan that I know. And now, even Bentley’s getting to know Ryan, and see him confident in the man that he is and in the family he’s building.”

While Ryan hasn’t had “in-depth” conversations with Bentley about alcohol, drugs and/or addiction, he said he would “definitely answer any questions” Bentley may have about the topic and that he would also be upset if he found out Bentley was partaking in any of these things, including drinking underage. 

“If I was to catch him, I mean drinking … you know, I feel like all 16-year-olds are going to experiment and try it and stuff but my feelings would definitely be hurt,” Ryan added. 

Regarding Ryan’s sobriety, Maci said that before 2023, she had seen Ryan sober “here and there,” however, she knows that Bentley is now able to get to know Ryan as someone who is confident in himself and dedicated to his family– something she praised Ryan for personally during the episode. 

“I feel like one thing to keep in mind, Ryan, is that [Bentley’s] gotten to see you overcome [addiction], but also be really proud and I feel like those are tools that he will be able to carry when he hits rough spots in life,” she said. “You know, just being able to overcome something and grow from it … .” 

Maci also commended Ryan for not avoiding certain conversations with Bentley and for taking accountability for his past actions. 

“ … That’s massive for Bentley to be able to see his dad say the hard things and have the tough conversions and … see you be happy with yourself, too,” she said. 

Towards the end of the episode, Maci addressed those who encouraged her to completely cut off communication with Ryan and his family when Ryan was in active addiction. Maci said that these comment “always bothered” her, as she recognized that if she were to do this, she wouldn’t just be taking Bentley away from his dad, she’d be taking Bentley away from his dad and his dad’s family. Maci admitted that while there were times that she wanted to completely remove her son from the Edwards family, cutting them off “was never an option” in her mind. 

“No, like, I would never do that to my child,” she said. “And yeah, sometimes you got to kind of leave the room and go to another room, but you always have to leave the door open.” 

Ryan— who is also the father of daughters Presley and Stella and son Jagger– stated that when he started coming back into Bentley’s life, he was scared that he would mess up the dynamic that Maci and her husband had built for the teen.

“I didn’t want to mess any of that up,” he said. 

“He is such a good kid,” Ryan added of his son. “I hate [that I missed] out on all that before, but better late than never for me.” 

You can watch the full episode below. 

(Photos: MTV; Instagram)