Former Teen Mom 2 star Jenelle Eason recently shared a video on social media in which she and her six-year-old daughter Ensley go through a bin of Jenelle’s childhood photos. The video included Jenelle sharing a rare photo of herself and her biological dad, Robert Evans.
“Look, that’s my dad,” Jenelle tells Ensley while showing her the photo, which has “1994” written on the back.
Ensley looks at the photo intently for a moment before turning to her mom. “You miss him? Do you?”
“Yeah,” Jenelle replies.
“Are you gonna cry?” Ensley asks.
“No,” Jenelle assures her. She then turns the photo around for the camera.
In addition to the photo of her dad, Jenelle also shared LOTS of childhood photos of herself. At one point, she talks about having very short hair after her mother, Barbara Evans, cut it. “I don’t think I asked her to,” Jenelle recalls.
“Mammay did that,” Ensley says as Jenelle shows the photo to the camera. “That’s why we don’t trust her any more.”
“Oh my god,” Jenelle laughs. “We don’t say that!”
Below are some examples of the childhood photos of Jenelle featured in the clip, followed by the full video. The photos include side-by-side images of Jenelle as a child and Ensley trying to make the same face.
@jenellelevans My biggest fan right here 🥰
Jenelle Eason’s dad Robert Evans details
Jenelle Eason hasn’t spoken very much about her biological dad publicly. However, a rough timeline with limited information can be put together by combining court documents with things Jenelle and her family members have said over the years.
Robert Evans and Barbara Evans separated on April 5, 1996 after 12 years of marriage. Jenelle was four years old at the time. She lived with her mom and two older siblings — brother Colin Evans and sister Ashleigh Evans — in a house in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Robert filed for divorce on May 14, 1996. Barbara followed up with her response on June 4, 1996. Radar Online obtained copies of documents from the divorce and shared them in 2016. Here’s an excerpt from Radar’s article:
Then on July 1, 1997, Babs proposed a parenting plan which called for Robert’s ‘residential time with the children shall be limited or restrained completely’ because she alleged that her ex ‘has a drinking problem.’ She also proposed shared joint legal responsibilities, that the kids live with her, and Robert get visitation with supervision.
Barbara lists her reasons for restricting Robert’s parental rights based on the factors of ‘neglect or substantial nonperformance of parenting functions,’ ‘a long-term impairment from resulting from drug, alcohol, or other substance abuse that interferes with the performance of parenting functions,’ ‘the absence or substantial impairment of emotional ties between the parent and child,’ and ‘the abusive use of conflict by the parent which creates the danger of serious damage to the child’s psychological development.’
Lastly, Barbara requested that their kids get counseling, Robert ‘enroll and successfully complete a program to address issues of anger management and domestic violence,’ Robert ‘refrain from using illegal drugs or alcohol during the time the child(ren) is in his care and for 24 hours previous to spending time with’ them, and finally that there should be an ‘alcohol assessment.’
After some back and forth, the couple reached an agreement in March of 1998 which resulted in Barbara getting the couple’s home and all of their debt, as well as $200 a month in alimony. The divorce was disposed on June 9, 1998.
The brother of #TeenMom2 star Jenelle Eason says "our father sexual abused me for 5 years and beat me and starved me" in angry, defensive Facebook rant: https://t.co/cMB4F8XYSm
— Starcasm (@starcasm) September 12, 2018
Jenelle’s brother Colin sets the house on fire
It’s unclear how things were for the Evans children prior to their parents’ divorce, but they clearly had some serious issues during and after. In one of the documents filed during the divorce, Barbara claimed that Robert failed to appear for scheduled visitations with the kids, “causing the parties oldest child, Ashleigh Evans to suffer severe emotional trauma resulting in her pulling her hair from her head.”
After the divorce was finalized, Jenelle’s brother Colin Evans set fire to the family’s house. Jenelle talked about Colin and the fire in her book, Read Between the Lines: From the Diary of a Teenage Mom. From our previous post:
Jenelle stated in the book that Colin was ‘developmentally challenged’ and she recalled a time when nine-year-old Colin set his toy car on fire in his upstairs bedroom before freaking out and then tossing the car on the bed. Jenelle says Colin came running downstairs, but it was too late to stop the spread of flames and the family had to evacuate.
Colin was extremely unhappy with what Jenelle wrote, and he took to Facebook in August of 2019 to share his angry response:
She lies more than Donald trump (Jenelle Evans) my entire house was not burnt down to the ground at all keep on all the lies and for ur info lil sis I’m not developmentally challenged stop lieing for ur fame I’m PTSD from our father sexual abused me for 5 years and beat me and starved me and i almost died in prison and all u care about is your money (jenelle Evans) lil sis and u never say hi u don’t care about any one but your self so keep up the lies lil sis
I am unaware of Jenelle or Barbara ever addressing Colin’s claims of being sexually abused by his dad.
More about Colin and the fire from our previous article:
Soon after that incident, Colin was sent away to a group home in Texas for nearly two years. Barbara Evans spoke with People about Colin in July of last year, and she says that he was in and out of mental health facilities since he was 6 years old. ‘I had to do what I had to do because he could not live in that house, he was dangerous,’ Barbara said of sending Colin away for help. ‘He burnt my house down when he was 10. We’d only been living in the residence for six months. Six months and he burnt the house down.’
Barbara iterated that the fire ‘wasn’t intentional — it was an accident. But still, it was a tough life. Tough life,’ she said.
Jenelle’s mom would later tell Radar Online that Robert did nothing to help the family after the house fire, and she was forced to live in a hotel room with the kids. “So after that, Barbara kicked him out of their lives for good,” the site reported.
Check out these AMAZING throwback photos of Jenelle Eason's mom, Barbara "Babs" Evans! https://t.co/3j8Vebvl2f đź‘€#TeenMom #TeenMom2
— Starcasm (@starcasm) December 5, 2023
Barbara and the kids moved to North Carolina, and she married a man named Mike. After the relocation and marriage, Robert pretty much disappeared from his kids’ lives.
“We use to have visitation with my father after the divorce, along with my brother and sister tagging along,” Jenelle wrote in a 2016 blog post titled “Daddy Issues” on her now-defunct website jenellelaurenevans.com. “These visitations lasted for a few years… until my mother met my step-father Mike.”
Robert spoke with Radar Online soon after Jenelle’s blog post. “They don’t call me,” he said. “They don’t get in touch with me. And I have no idea how to get in touch with them.” He told the site that he hadn’t spoken with Jenelle in roughly ten years.
Soon after Jenelle’s memorable debut on 16 and Pregnant, it was revealed Robert didn’t even know she was pregnant! Star Magazine spoke with Robert’s sister in January of 2011.
“None of us has seen or heard from Jenelle since she and her older sister and brother, Ashleigh and Colin, moved to North Carolina in the late 1990s with her mom after her parents got divorced,” Jenelle’s aunt, Judy Ruane, told Star.
After Judy found out about Jenelle’s pregnancy and Jace’s birth, she contacted Robert. “He was shocked — there was total silence on the phone,” Judy said. “He clearly was stunned by what’s happened.”
It’s unclear if Jenelle and Robert have met or spoken since her appearance on (and disappearance from) MTV.
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com
