Teen Mom's Jenelle Evans Reveals the “Breaking Point” That Pushed Her to Leave David Eason

It's no secret that life on The Land got pretty murky for Teen Mom veteran Jenelle Evans. 

Toward the end of her six-year marriage to David Eason, "we were going through ups and down for six months to a year," the 32-year-old revealed in an exclusive interview with E! News ahead of her June 13 return to the franchise on Teen Mom: The Next Chapter. "I was over it for awhile and would tell friends that I'm over it and I'm going to leave. But at the same time, it's hard to leave when you're both on the same deed to the house. It took me awhile to actually get a little window of opportunity to leave, to file everything I had to file." 

That opening came this winter, Jenelle filing a complaint for separation when David left the 10-acre North Carolina property they once shared to bunk in their nearby boat.  

"There's haters out there that are like, 'Why didn't she just leave and file separation when she can?'" Jenelle explained, noting North Carolina's law that spouses must be separated for one year before they can have what the state considers an "absolute divorce". However, she continued, "you both have to be at two different physical addresses to file for separation, so one of us had to leave and we were both butting heads. It was very difficult because you both have to agree to separate. And most of the time, that doesn't happen." 

For Jenelle, the second time has proved to be the charm.

She briefly moved to Nashville in 2019 after David shot and killed their French bulldog Nugget in response to the pup biting their now-7-year-old daughter Ensley. ("This was something that nobody wants to ever have to do," he later explained to People. "The dog was aggressive. Yes, she might not be huge or whatever, but you know when a dog bites a child on the face more than one time, then it should never be around the child again.")

"We separated for a little bit and I moved to Tennessee," Jenelle explained to E!. "And then I moved back because I realized that if you just leave your house within a marriage, it's called abandoning your house. So I didn't want to do that and I had to come back." 

The situation continued to deteriorate, with Jenelle, also mom to son Jace, 14, with ex Andrew Lewis and son Kaiser, 9, with former fiancé Nathan Griffith, saying on Teen Mom: The Next Chapter how "mentally abusive" her husband could be. (When asked for comment, David told E! News, "I can not elaborate on any of that at this time but I can tell you that those things did not happen. When the truth does come out you will all be very, very surprised!")

"He would throw objects, put holes in walls," she shared with fellow cast member Briana DeJesus, adding that David could also be "emotionally abusive, saying, 'Jenelle, go kill yourself, your mother doesn't even love you. Cry yourself to sleep, b---h.'"

Instead, as Jenelle detailed to E! News, "I would always have to walk away. I would walk away either in my house to my bedroom or I would have to take the kids and drive somewhere away from him, just separating yourself from someone that's that negative. That was the only thing that would help calm me down." 

But the final straw came in January when a grand jury indicted David on a child abuse charge stemming from a September 2023 altercation with Jace. In a series of Facebook posts proclaiming his innocence, David wrote, "I will always stand strong because I've always done what's right, no matter what you heard." The case remains pending.

Having finally regained custody of Jace from her mom Barbara Evans in March 2023 after a decade-long fight, "I didn't want anything, anything to come in between that," Jenelle explained. "So for him to come in between that, it was just a real breaking point for me as well. I've been at the battle for Jace for years, and it's like, he's finally here. So I'm not messing that up." 

And now with the clock ticking down toward an eventual divorce, and a six-month domestic violence protective order granted this May ("I feel like I was being harassed a lot by David online and through third parties, and he would have these TikTok lives with a bunch of people, and it was just really affecting my mental health") she's eager to put her best foot forward. 

With a slew of "different career and business opportunities," she has plans to leave her marriage—and North Carolina—in the rearview. 

"I feel like so much stuff has happened here that it's like, 'I've got to get out and relocate and get that fresh start, leave all the bad memories behind." 

Teen Mom: The Next Chapter airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. EST on MTV.

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