Jenelle Evans is focusing on her family as she navigates a new life in Las Vegas for her and her kids. Ahead of Thursday’s season finale of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, the newly-single MTV personality opened up to PopCulture.com about “healing” from the end of her marriage to David Eason as she revealed more about her relationship status amid fans’ speculation about her and manager August Keen.
After moving across the country from North Carolina to Las Vegas in the wake of her Feb. 16 separation from Eason, Evans, 32, told PopCulture she’s been concentrating on getting sons Jace, 15, Kaiser, 10, and daughter Ensley, 7, settled. “I’m just focusing on them, taking care of them, getting them involved with community and extracurricular activities,” she told PopCulture.
She added of her romantic life, “I don’t know, maybe in the future, I’ll go on some dates. But for right now, my main focus is my kids.”
Teen Mom: The Next Chapter fans have been speculating about Evans’ relationship with Keen since the talent manager first appeared on this season of the MTV show, but the 16 and Pregnant alum insisted there’s nothing between them but friendship.
“I think people are reading a lot into that,” she remarked. “We’ve been friends for a long time, me and August, for years.” Evans insisted that “nothing has changed” between them since her split from Eason, calling them “just friends right now” who “hang out from time to time.”
The reality personality added that she’s still “getting over” her nine-year relationship with Eason and “healing” from it, noting, “There’s a lot of healing that needs to be done before I can be comfortable with myself to move on.”
Jenelle Evans and David Eason
– Bruce Glikas/Getty Images)
Looking back on her marriage to Eason, Evans recalled, “I just I know how uptight I was feeling towards the end of my relationship and how much anxiety I had. I felt like I was walking on eggshells a lot. So I just know those feelings and I don’t want them to ever come back.”
When she is ready to look for love once more, Evans wants to find a partner who has “their life together,” is financially stable and will treat her and her kids “right.”
“My life is pretty crazy with being on TV and who I am,” she admitted. “So even the dating pool is kind of hard to get into because it’s like, I don’t want to tell anybody I’m on the show.”
Teen Mom: The Next Chapter airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.