Leah Messer and her first ex-husband Corey Simms have endured a long custody battle over their twin daughters Aliannah Hope and Aleeah Grace - and it's all played out on MTV's hit reality TV series "Teen Mom 2." During last night's episode, Simms' lawyer announced the results of their latest case in which Simms was awarded primary custody of the 6-year-old girls, and now Messer is opening up about the changes and how she's dealing with them.
Under their new custody agreement, Simms, 26, is the primary caretaker and primary legal custodian of the girls, and he also shares decision-making duties with his ex-wife, Messer. Simms and his wife, Miranda, now have custody of the girls during the week from Monday-Friday, and Messer, 23, gets them on the weekends from Friday-Monday.
With the custody agreement flipped, Messer had to put her emotions aside in order to continue to co-parent with Simms. The mom of three (she shares 3-year-old daughter Adalynn with her second ex-husband, Jeremy Calvert) explained how she discussed the changes with her twins.
"When I talk to the girls about co-parenting changes, I kind of listen to how they feel and support them," Messer explained. "I have been focusing on more of how they feel instead of how I feel or Corey feels, or Miranda or Jeremy or Jeremy's girlfriend - it doesn't matter. If they say something and you know they're feeling a certain way, they're feeling that way for a reason and that's what needs to be addressed. Not what is going on with the parent. At the end of the day, it's not about either of us. It's about the child."
Meanwhile, Messer's ex Simms had a very different approach on how to explain the new custody agreement to Ali and Aleeah.
"I really didn't talk to them about it, I kind of just let it transition over without talking to them about it," Simms said. "If they would ask something, I would tell them. If they didn't ask, I just kind of rolled into it. It wasn't a big, big transition - I mean, it was a little bit, but they pretty much understood they were going to go to school from my house, and they go there [Leah's house] on the weekends, and it was fine. I didn't really tell them nothing, I just kind of rolled into it."