Steven McBee Jr. revealed to Fox News Digital that his father’s prison sentence for fraud was a surprising blessing because it allowed their family to reprioritize what’s important.
“The silver lining in this, as difficult as this has been for us as a family, I also think five years, 10 years, 15 years from now, we’re gonna look back and say, ‘This was the best moment of our entire lives because it allowed us to reprioritize and refocus on what’s actually important to who we are as people,’” McBee Jr. said.
He said his dad would say the same thing.
“Every conversation I’ve had with him since he’s been up there, it hasn’t been about ‘How are the businesses doing?’ It hasn’t been about ‘What’s going on with the TV show’ or ‘What about social media?’ It’s been, ‘How’s the family? How’s the babies?’ The important things in life.”
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“The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys,” a reality show about their family’s farming empire in Missouri, returns for its third season to Bravo and next day on Peacock on June 15.
McBee Jr.’s father was sentenced to two years in federal prison in 2025 for his involvement in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme involving crop insurance. He is serving time at the Federal Prison Camp in Yankton, South Dakota.
WATCH: Steven McBee Jr. says his father’s prison sentence will end up as the ‘best moment’ for their family
In addition to prison time, he was ordered to two years of supervised release and must pay $4,022,124 in restitution to the USDA Risk Management Agency.
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“He had an awakening leading up to the sentencing, leading up to going to prison, as far as ‘prioritize the right things in life,’” McBee Jr. said. “And I think that not only he would sit here and say the same thing, but myself and my younger brothers could say, ‘Hey, the last few years, we got so busy. It’s almost like we lost track of what’s really important in life, the family dinners, the evenings driving around the farm watching the sunset. We got so caught up in the work that we lost ourselves in the work.’ And I think that was his biggest message was get back to what’s important to who you are.”
Still, he said his father being sent to prison was “heartbreaking” for their family because he’s such a big part of their lives.
“I mean, we’re over there for dinner at his house quite literally three to four nights out of the week,” McBee Jr. said. “And so to know that he was going to be away for a while, that we were gonna have to step up and be the decision makers across the businesses” without their father to rely on “was a mix of being heartbroken and also saying, ‘Hey now’s the time for us to step up.'”
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McBee Jr. said the last thing his father told them before he reported to prison was “‘Not only are you guys going to be just fine, you’re going to be better off without me here. I’ve taught you everything I know, and you can learn from the mistakes I’ve made. You guys are better men than me. Like, go on and take on the world. You guys got this.’”
He said that his family is able to see their dad about once every two weeks, and he was even allowed to come home on furlough for two days once.
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Regarding possible misconceptions that viewers of the show might have about his family, McBee stressed that there is a “larger emphasis, whenever you’re on reality TV, there’s a larger emphasis put on the flaws or the drama than what’s actually present in real life.”
WATCH: Steven McBee Jr. stresses that reality TV zeroes in on the drama and the flaws
For every 100 hours of footage the crew shoots, he said, it boils down to an hour of “all the drama and the flaws of your character. So it’s not that we’ve been judged incorrectly. People have the right to their own opinion, and candidly, we are not perfect people, and I’m the first one to sit up here and say, ‘I’ve got some things I’ve gotta work on myself.’ But as far as like the totality of us as human beings, it’s like everyone else.”
He added, “There are very, very good things about us and then there are some flaws about us. Unfortunately, with reality TV, it’s pretty much just the flaws that get shown.”
“We are human beings,” McBee Jr. continued of what he hopes fans take from the show. “It’s reality TV. So there’s a lot of drama. You get to see all of our flaws out there. But I’d rather be an imperfect person living authentically and showing you who we really are than curating an image or crafting an image that’s this perfect persona on TV.”
Fox News’ Stephanie Giang-Paunon contributed to this report.
