Teen Mom 2 star Ashley Jones recently opened up about her life with fiance Bariki Smith long before the MTV camera’s started capturing her story.
In a recent appearance on Lindsey Chrisley and Kailyn Lowry’s Coffee Convos podcast, the 24-year-old shared some details about her past life as a stripper. She also dished about being financially cut off by her grandparents before finally getting her big break on Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant.
Ashley explains why she’s sticking by Bariki Smith’s side
Early on in the podcast, the Teen Mom 2 star talked about her fiance Bar, who she shares 3-year-old daughter Holly with.
“You know what people don’t understand Bar and I, but Bar and I have been homeless together, We’ve been through so much together that we are just trying to make it f**king work, okay,” noted Ashley.
She shared, “I don’t think people know when I got pregnant we were living in a trap house, there was no running water, there was no electricity,” recounted Ashley.
“And he was doing his best ‘entrepreneurial things’ to keep us going…but there was a point where Bar and I were at our lowest lows sleeping in the cold together cause we didn’t even have heat,” she continued.
“So that’s why we have something so deep is because when I couldn’t do it when I was pregnant, he was doing it.”
She also told listeners that Bar was the one taking her to school and making sure that she stayed in school when they didn’t even have a roof over their heads. “[He was like] ‘You’re going to be who you wanna be, even if I have to sacrifice me to make it work for you,” admitted the young mom.
Ashley Jones reflects on stripper past
During her podcast chat the Teen Mom 2 star also dished about her past as a stripper in Vegas — something she did to make ends meet.
“People don’t know this, but when I was stripping, I felt so bad about myself. I felt like, ‘This is where you are?’” confessed Ashley.
“You know my grandfather is a psychology professor, my grandma was the first Black woman to work in Major League sports, so they are very pro-Black, pro-education… and me stripping, oh my God, with the hoodrat from the hood?… My grandparents literally were like, ‘You’re out of our will, good luck, b***h.’”
“When I was stripping, I wasn’t talking to any of my family. We were in Vegas with his mom and things were going was crazy and it was Bar that kept me…It was him that was there and that was the darkest time of my life.”
“So just because people say things about Bar doesn’t mean I have to put him in the disposal. We’ve been through the f**king ringer.”
Teen Mom 2 airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on MTV.