Steven McBee Jr. Shares Update on Dad Steve McBee Sr.'s Prison Experience and Why They Aren't Working on a Pardon (Exclusive)

Deirdre DurkanMon, June 15, 2026 at 7:22 PM UTC

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Steven McBee Jr.; Steve McBeeCredit: Paul Andrews/Bravo; Paul Andrews/PEACOCK via Getty -

Steven McBee Jr. says father Steve McBee Sr. remains "the most optimistic person" while serving his sentence in Yankton, S.D.

The McBee family visits Steve about once a month and stays in touch through phone calls

Despite previously discussing a pardon, Steven says the family is focused on running the business and moving forward "as if nothing is going to happen"

As The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys returns for season 3, Steven McBee Jr. says his family is focused on moving forward — not on a presidential pardon.

Speaking with PEOPLE on June 10, Steven and his brother Cole McBee opened up about their father Steve McBee Sr.'s time behind bars, how often they speak with him and why they're approaching his prison sentence with realism rather than optimism.

"We're just focused on our businesses and what we have in front of us, as far as what's actually happening," Steven, 32, says when asked whether the family is still pursuing a pardon. "I don't want to bet on blue sky. I don't want to bet on things that could or couldn't happen."

The reality star says the family has instead adopted a practical mindset as they navigate life without the patriarch who once served as their chief decision-maker.

Steve McBee and Steven McBee Jr. in 'The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys' season 1Credit: Paul Andrews/PEACOCK via Getty

"We're just putting our heads down, grinding and working through things as if nothing is going to happen," he explains. "I think that's the best way to work through this. If that happened, then great. But we don't expect it, and we're working through it either way."

Steven's dad previously told PEOPLE he planned to seek a pardon from President Donald Trump. Ahead of reporting to prison in December 1, Steve, now 54, said he had been working with pardon attorneys and was "very hopeful" about the possibility of receiving clemency. In 2024, he pleaded guilty in a multi-million-dollar crop insurance fraud case. On Oct. 16, 2025, he was sentenced to 24 months in prison and has to pay $4,022,124 in restitution.

The family's legal struggles have loomed large over the last several years, but Steven says two moments in particular stand out as the most difficult.

"I think there were two days that really hit me throughout the season," he says. "Number one was the day we woke up to sentencing day, and then number two was the day we actually took my dad to South Dakota to drop him off."

"Both those days were extremely surreal," he says. "A once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I don't mean that in a positive way. That's a once-in-a-lifetime experience I'm going to file away and say that will never, ever, ever happen again in our lives. It was pretty rough."

While season 3 chronicles much of that uncertainty, the brothers say their father has remained remarkably positive since beginning his sentence at a federal prison camp in Yankton, S.D.

"He's doing as good as he can be for the circumstances," Cole, 26, says. "He's a very optimistic person, so he's staying positive. He's trying to take this situation — we all are — and we're learning from it as much as we can. We're trying to grow from it and try and do better from everything here forward."

The family visits Steve about once a month, while phone calls are less frequent due to prison restrictions.

"I speak to him once every couple weeks," Cole says. "We'll go see him. We try to get up there and go see him."

Steven says their conversations often leave him emotional because of what his father chooses to focus on.

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"The last time I spoke to him, it was probably a week and a half ago," he says. "...He's been there for six or seven months now, and the man is only concerned with my well-being and how I'm doing emotionally with everything I've got going on."

"That's his whole entire world, wondering how I'm doing as he's sitting in prison," Steven adds. "He's one heck of a father."

Steve's absence has forced the McBee brothers to step into new leadership roles across the family's businesses, something viewers will see play out throughout the upcoming season.

"Beforehand, if there was ever a problem where we hit a wall or we didn't know what to do, we sort of had that golden card of, 'Hey, let's call Dad,' " Steven says. "Now we haven't had him, and so it's been solving by committee."

According to the brothers, that challenge has ultimately strengthened their relationships and brought the family closer together.

"There were some very, very rough days for our family," Cole says. "But it definitely brought us all closer together and really made us stick together as a family more than ever."

Even with cameras documenting some of the hardest moments of their lives, the brothers say they never considered hiding their struggles.

"Whenever we first got into reality TV, we sat down as a family and said if we're going to do this, we'd rather show who we are authentically," Steven says. "We'd rather be imperfectly authentic than curate a perfect image."

That authenticity, he believes, is why viewers continue to connect with the family despite the controversies and headlines that have surrounded them.

"We've certainly faced a run of pretty tough luck lately," Steven says. "Some of it self-induced, without a doubt, and we're learning from that every single day."

"If we fall, we get back up and say we're going to be better in the future," he adds. "We're far, far from perfect, but we're going to work every single day to get a little bit better."

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McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys returns Monday, June 15 at 9:15 p.m. ET on Bravo.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”