Teen Mom 2 star Jenelle Eason has issued a statement in response to her husband David Eason’s homophobic and transphobic Twitter tirade on Monday. In the statement, Jenelle never says that David didn’t mean what he wrote, merely that he didn’t realize what a big deal it would be because he didn’t understand “how Twitter even works.”
In David’s defense, Jenelle argues that her former manager was gay, and Jenelle and David considered him a close friend — before he and Jenelle had a HUGE falling out and parted ways. Jenelle also points out that David went with her to Farrah Abraham’s birthday party in Miami in 2016 “with a lot of LGBT people there, and he didn’t act in any type of way. We went had a good time and left.”
Here is Jenelle’s full statement, which she provided to TMZ:
David didn’t understand how offensive people would get or how Twitter even works. Now that he realizes his voice is very strong within media/tabloids he has deactivated his account. He agrees he will keep his comments to himself from now on.
David doesn’t hate people from the LGBT community. My old manager was gay and used to be one of me and Davids close friends. We attended Farrah’s birthday in Miami with a lot of LGBT people there and he didn’t act in any type of way. We went had a good time and left.
We are sorry for the comments that were made.
It’s very important to point out that Jenelle says she and David “are sorry that the comments were made,” not that he doesn’t believe what he said — as I stated earlier. Also important to point out is that Jenelle’s statement does make it clear that it was David who tweeted those things, so thankfully the potential “his Twitter account was hacked” excuse is now off the table.
I’ve been writing about Teen Mom and reality television in general for close to a decade now, and despite Jenelle’s highly publicized history of controversial actions and statements, I never once thought her job on Teen Mom 2 was in serious jeopardy. This is different.
There is simply no way a network like MTV can keep David on the show. No way. So what if David were to publicly apologize and make some sort of statement expressing a change of heart?
1. I can’t imagine him doing that.
2. I don’t think at this point that people will believe him.
3. I still don’t think it would be enough for MTV to justify associating their brand with him by demonstrating any level of tolerance for the kinds of things that he said.
Here is an example of MTV’s worst nightmare in photo form:
That being said, Jenelle is important enough for Teen Mom 2‘s ratings that I do think it is possible that MTV will try to keep her on the show without filming David. How will that work? I don’t know. It seems like an insurmountable challenge if they want to try to maintain the notion that Teen Mom 2 is a “reality” show. (The more I try to imagine it, the more ridiculous it seems.)
Sources for The Ashley’s Reality Roundup are confirming that MTV execs are treating this incident more seriously than Jenelle’s previous headline-grabbing antics. “Nothing has happened yet, but they are not just blowing this one off,” the source says. The Ashley is being told that the show’s production bigwigs “are meeting in Viacom’s New York City offices tomorrow to discuss the situation and figure out what to do about it.”
The source goes on to back up my belief that execs will do everything they can to keep Jenelle on the show. “Even though the fans are calling for Jenelle to get fired for what David said, in my opinion it’s extremely unlikely they’ll fire her,” the source says.
Meanwhile, both Jenelle and David’s Twitter accounts remain suspended.
So what do you think will happen? As it mentions in the tweet, not what you would like to happen, but what you actually think will happen. Take the poll!
Given all that has happened with Jenelle's husband David Eason, what do you think @MTV will do? (Not what you want to happen but what you think will happen) I still believe David's days on #TeenMom2 are over, but lots of folks seem to disagree.
— Starcasm (@starcasm) February 21, 2018
UPDATE – Moments before we posted the poll, MTV officially announced they have fired David Eason from Teen Mom 2. Click the link for the network’s full statement.
