Former ‘Teen Mom’ Star Ryan Edwards Has an Arrest Record That Dates Back to 2017

The Gist:

• Ryan Edwards of the Teen Mom franchise has had multiple bouts of trouble with the law over the years.
• Fans are familiar with his various arrests and even his jail time.
• Ryan left Teen Mom in 2021, only to return to Teen Mom: The Next Chapter in 2023.

Over the years, Teen Mom OG alum Ryan Edwards has faced a considerable amount of legal trouble.

Following his slew of arrests, stints in rehab, and his wife's March 2023 divorce filing, the former reality star’s situation led to three arrests between February and April 2023. And as many Teen Mom fans know, he had an arrest record before this.

In December 2023, he made headlines yet again when he was arrested in court during a hearing regarding a previous charge. Ryan, who has also struggled with substance abuse issues over the years, has an arrest record that stems back to 2017. Below, we look at the details on his charges, from drug possession to restraining order violations.

Spring 2017 is when the Teen Mom OG star's legal troubles began. On March 12, 2017, Ryan was arrested for heroin possession for the first time. According to Radar Online, there were “approximately 14 hypodermic needles, one of which was loaded with heroin,” in the reality star’s car at the time of his arrest. Authorities also found “two silver spoons with residue on them.”

One year later, in March 2018, Ryan got arrested for violating his probation after his initial arrest for heroin possession. That same year, in May, his ex and fellow Teen Mom star Maci Bookout and her husband, Taylor McKinney, filed an order of protection against Ryan. Maci and Ryan share one child, Bentley.

“He called me on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, and threatened to show up at my house and put a bullet in my head,” Taylor revealed in court documents obtained by Radar Online. "He has a history of drug abuse… He has also said he would show up at our son’s baseball game and confront us.”

The couple and their shared children received a two-year order of protection in May 2018.

Then, in July 2018, Ryan violated his probation again and was taken into police custody.

In January 2019, the Teen Mom alum spent time in jail for heroin possession and theft after two separate stints in rehab. According to TMZ, police arrested the reality star in December 2018 after failing to pay his $36 tab at a bar. And the heroin possession charge came from an outstanding warrant. Ryan was in jail until April 15, 2019.

In January 2023, Ryan accused his wife Mackenzie Edwards of cheating on social media on multiple occasions. Several weeks later, he allegedly posted a revealing photo of his wife and said, “If you guys have never seen a spineless sl-t, this is one.”

Mackenzie reported her husband’s behavior to the authorities and was granted an order of protection. However, Ryan violated Mackenzie’s restraining order, and police arrested him in February 2023. During this arrest, he had drug paraphernalia and suspected narcotics on his person.

Then, on March 1, 2023, Ryan was arrested again for violating the order of protection and stalking per a press release from the Hamilton County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Department. Two days prior to this arrest, Mackenzie had filed for divorce according to Us Weekly, which likely triggered his actions.

On April 7, 2023, Ryan was arrested again, this time for possession of a controlled substance, DUI, and violating the terms of his probation. Per an affidavit obtained by People, Ryan was found "unconscious and unresponsive" in the driver's seat of his truck while the car was "running and in drive." On him, police found a bag containing "a crystal type substance,” a “second small bag of what appeared to be a blue powder." He was transported to the hospital for treatment.

On April 20, 2023, Ryan plead guilty to harassment charges against Mackenzie, stemming from his February 2023 arrest. He was then sentenced to 11 months and 29 days in jail.

Per In Touch, many of his stalking and drug paraphernalia charges from his arrests in February and March 2023 have been dropped.

It appears that the trouble is never-ending for this former reality star. In December 2023, when a judge ruled that Ryan had failed to follow the guidelines of his probation for a previous offense, he was sentenced to a month in jail. Although he later passed a mandated drug test to prove he had been clean from using substances, he was still ordered to serve out that month-long sentence.