Earlier this week, The Ashley recapped what she feels was the best episode of MTV’s True Life ever. The episode, entitled “I Had My Cousin’s Baby,” followed two couples (well, one-and-a-half couples, actually, since one of the guys was in jail throughout the whole episode and couldn’t really participate). The couples are cousins in love. The episode was quite the treat, and The Ashley suggests you read her recap of it, if you haven’t already.
Anyway, the episode was filmed throughout the summer and fall of 2015, and, although MTV gave us a two-sentence update on the couples at the end of the episode, The Ashley was eager to know what has happened to these kissin’ cousins since we last saw them…
You may be surprised by what The Ashley found…
Alexis & Andrew
Then:
When we last saw Alexis, she had just given birth to her cousin Andrew’s baby. Andrew, of course, was locked up on burglary charges and was awaiting trial for his crimes. She had few people who were supporting her in her relationship with her cousin. We only saw Andrew’s brother, Fern, as well as his friend, Tony, approve of the relationship during the episode.
Now:
On New Year’s Eve, MTV.com posted a follow-up interview with Alexis to see what has happened since her episode was filmed. While that interview had some interesting updates, it actually only told some of the story of what Alexis has been up to.
Alexis told MTV that she and Andrew are no longer together, and that they broke up right after she gave birth to their daughter.
“It just wasn’t going anywhere, and I was getting more and more irritated each time I talked to him,” she said. “He’s still my cousin though!”
Thank you, Captain Obvious.
Anyway, Alexis also revealed that Andrew is still in jail. In mid-December, he was sentenced to six years in prison. According to court records found by The Ashley, it will be at least two years before Andrew has a chance to get out of prison.
But Alexis isn’t sitting at home, waiting for Andrew to get released! She told MTV that Tony (Andrew’s friend) was living with her and her kids.
“I don’t have to worry about having somewhere to stay because I have my own apartment now,” Alexis said. “Tony is living in the apartment with me and the kids. We split the bills, but he recently had to quit his job because it was too far away. He’s currently looking for another job.”
She kind of left out the fact that she and unemployed Tony are now romantically involved! A look at Alexis’ and Tony’s Facebook pages reveal that they are in a relationship together, and have been for a while.
Let this be a lesson, kiddies: If you burgle, you could get sent to prison for six years and your best friend could steal your fiance!
Anyway, it seems that Alexis’ family is thrilled that they no longer have kissing cousins in their family.
“My relationship with “MY” side of the family has gotten much better because they’re happy that Andrew and I broke up and that there’s basically no chance we’ll get back together,” she told MTV. “Andrew’s side of the family and I are on okay terms but we haven’t really been speaking as much because they’re so upset about Andrew’s sentence.”
Her daughter is doing well, however. Alexis posted an update on the baby, along with a message to all the haters who questioned whether the baby would be born healthy, due to having parents that are first cousins.
“For everyone concerned about the mental health of my daughter, she is perfectly fine,” Alexis wrote on her Facebook page. “Lol ignorance is bliss. Having a child with a cousin and the child having a mentally disability is a myth.”
Just gonna leave it at that…
Grace & Dylan
Then:
On the episode we also met Grace and Dylan, cousins from Tennessee who are married and the parents of two little girls. According to Grace, their family members (except for her mom and stepdad) have completed shunned her and Dylan for getting married and having children together.
To escape the shunning, Dylan and Grace load up all of their belongings, as well as their youngins, and head west to California. Since the couple doesn’t appear to have a plan once they get to Los Angeles, they struggled to find somewhere to stay and, according to the post-episode update, were forced to move back to Tennessee after two weeks in LA.
Now:
The Ashley had to do some intense sleuthing to find an update on these country bumpkin cousins, but she finally found some very interesting stuff in regard to Grace and Dylan and their episode.
According to Facebook posts made by Grace’s mother and stepfather earlier this week, important facts were omitted from the episode. Grace and Dylan are indeed cousins who had children together, but they have not been shunned by their families, according to Grace’s mother.
“They only told the viewers what would get them to watch and talk about later,” Grace’s mom commented on Facebook in defense of her daughter. “They have been [accepted] by the family and the grandbabies are loved deeply…. They did move back to TN and spent Christmas with both families which they always have done.”
The Ashley investigated and, while looking through family photos posted onto Facebook, Grace, Dylan and their girls are, indeed, pictured at events such as birthday parties and Christmas gatherings. Grace’s family even threw baby showers for her when she was pregnant with her daughters.
The Ashley also found out that Grace and Dylan are not first cousins like Alexis and Andrew are. Dylan and Grace are, in fact, third cousins, which is why it was legal for them to get married. (Just for the record, it’s legal to marry your first cousin in the state of Tennessee, as well as in many other states.)
During the episode, Grace, Dylan and their kids show up to a family party that they were not invited to. When they arrive, their family refuses to open the door for them. According to Grace’s stepfather, that wasn’t exactly the case.
“That was not even the brother’s house they showed,” he wrote on Facebook, adding that no one has excluded Grace and Dylan. “They were all together for Christmas.”
According to Grace’s mother and stepfather, Grace and Dylan did have a reason for choosing to go to Los Angeles. Although it seemed to be a random (and stupid) choice for them to try to move to the very expensive Los Angeles, they went because they believed that Dylan had a job lined up there.
“They moved to CA because he had a job there and once he got there it fell through,” Grace’s mom explained. “Something ‘True Life’ didn’t tell you.”
Grace’s mother and stepfather both wrote that Grace and Dylan were so nervous as to how they would be portrayed on the episode that they allegedly went through procedures to get MTV to not air the episode. Grace’s mother wrote that by doing so, the couple forfeited the money they were to receive from MTV for doing the show.
“They had even signed papers with ‘True Life’ before they came home to not air the show because of the way the show was gonna turn out,” Grace’s mom wrote. “So they did not receive a penny for it…. They had signed papers to cancel it. And [MTV] went ahead and aired it.”
Grace’s stepdad claimed on Facebook that the couple was supposed to get about $2,000 for doing the episode.
Luckily, however, Grace and Dylan are doing much better now than when we last saw them, living in a filthy trailer before moving to California and living in a motel.
“[Dylan] has got him a great job,” Grace’s mother wrote. “They found them a super nice townhome to live and the babies are loved greatly.”
For more of The Ashley’s reality TV “Where Are They Now?” posts, click here!
(Photos: MTV, Facebook)
21 Responses
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its been a long while since the show aired but overall glad to here everything turned out okay with Grace and Dylan I liked them on the show. I’m commenting cause I’ve watched old episodes of the show them found this forum.
So, you pretty much made excuses for The Ashley, but dogged the first “kissing cousins”..ALL of it is disgusting and whether their first, second, or third cousins it’s all nasty.
I havent actually watched the episode myself, so Im not sure if you can see it in the background anywhere, but it is the neighbor’s house right across the street that was used for the birthday party scene.
This episode is about myself, my husband, and our two little ones. I do very much apprexiate you clearing the air on some subjects such as NO, we did not just randomly choose to move away because we weren’t accepted and out of all places choose LA. He was working here in TN and got a wonderful Job offer through a different company in LA and it fell through after there. We also had a deposit down on a home that we visited to multiple times which they also left out.
And yes, we are third cousins. To clear up any confusion as well, we went to a Doctor at Vanderbilt that specifies in Geneaologist (SP?) to determine if us being related would have any kind of effect on our children (ie: birth defects) before we ever became pregnant, and the answer was no, she assured us that our family tree is far too far apart for it to increase any chances.
Too bad things didn’t go well for you and Dylan in L. A. ; I thought it was a bit naive to set such a low budget and not plan for car trouble, but it’s understandable to a degree.
Naiveté aside, I was rooting for you two, and even though I knew how it was going to turn out, I was sad for you guys. There was such a sense of genuine excitement and wonder in your face, Grace, especially at the beach. It was so sweet that I couldn’t help but cheer you on.
Try again in the future! As someone who packed up on her own and moved to a different state then a different country, it can be done! Good luck 🙂
Thank you very much! Well the $1000 was just to get us cross-country, and and our budget for living was $800 a month because we had already paid and put a deposit down on a home to rent in Long Beach (and the rent was $800/no), which we even went and visited multiple times with the camera crew, it just wasnt move in ready till the first of the month.
I was going to follow up on the recap that was done about this episode, but since this is called where are they now I’ll comment on this article instead. All I really wanted to say is in the episode, they show Alexis living in Charleston, but then traveling to Anderson, SC for her man’s court date. What they don’t tell you is that she also had her baby in Anderson, SC at Anmed Women and Children’s hospital. I’d recognize that hospital anywhere since sadly I also live in the same town and had my child there as well. I thought to myself when I first saw it that the room she had her baby in looked a lot like our hospital and then when they released her I saw that miniature model of the original hospital through the doors as she was leaving on the outside and that confirmed my suspicion. Before I even saw this episode after learning one of the couples were in SC, I had a gut feeling it was somehow going to be in the town I lived in. When it first started and I saw Charleston, I thought okay maybe not thankfully, but odd enough it ended in my town. I just want it to be known that Anderson and Charleston are like 4-5 hours in between the two towns. I thought it was odd Fern said he had a new job with Clemson which is like 20-30 minutes away from Anderson so my point is this confused me as to why they were all in Charleston as if they lived there which I assume they did or either Alexis was visiting her other family there. I really wish True Life would have not put gaps in between that and her having the baby cause one would automatically think she went back to Charleston to have the child. I guess it wasn’t really relevant, but still I don’t like a big “plot hole” lol. I’d also like to know if she got the apartment here in Anderson or if she left this town after having the baby here. If she is still around Anderson then wow is all I can say. 1.) We probably live in close proximity to one another and 2.) My town is actually MTV famous now even if for a brief moment, it’s just a shame that my town had to become famous for something like this. It sure doesn’t do it any favors, let alone the stereotypes about the south in general.
I was questioning the authenticity of the party scene! I noticed there was only one or two cars in the driveway for this “birthday party”.
It’s a little confusing. Grace certainly made it seem like they were being shunned. She said her brother didn’t talk to her any more. And she said at least two or three times how upset she was that no one from either family called or stopped by to say goodbye before they left for LA.
My point is, if their family is fine with their situation, then why did both Grace and Dylan blatantly lie on camera and say that both families were upset and weren’t very involved with them??
I think they lied to get attention and to make it more interesting. Not trying to be dicks or anything, but I think if they are more interesting they might have thought they could luck out and get their own reality show or something. Kind of like how Honey Boo-Boo’s mom acted nuts on that pageant show and then got her own show. It’s kind of smart if you think about it.
Well third cousins is very different then first cousins. I don’t know any of my third cousins, I doubt many people do.
eh, for me, family is family. Whether you are my first cousin, my fifth cousin, my cousin through marriage, or my tenth cousin though marriage, if I grew up thinking of you as family, you are family. It’s still weird.
I do get what you are saying, but it’s still gross IMO.
I agree with the family is family thing, but they did not grow up together, so I think it’s different for them
I missed that part. Thanks!!
still very gross
Thank you for the update The Ashley 🙂 I was wondering what happened to these people after the show and what type of cousins they actually were. I’ve gotten pretty good at spotting the editing techniques they use in reality television, but it’s impossible to tell what’s real when they straight up omit information or lie. I guess I’ll take True Life with a grain of salt just like everything else Mtv puts out. Lol, I don’t know why I thought True Life was any different than any other “reality” show they produce. By the way, does anyone watch The Challenge on Mtv? Abrahm is pretty crazy, sure, but I felt really bad for him while watching tonight’s episode and the aftershow.
I felt so bad for Abe! SO BAD! Cara made him look like a complete fool! He was blindsided just a couple of minutes before going onto the after show. I am really surprised (and a little impressed) with how calm he was on set! That EP Booth is like the Abe whisperer! He is amazing!!
I actually felt bad for Cara Maria. Maybe it was just for show, but he came across as extremely domineering and controlling, and Cara Maria seemed borderline scared of him (I missed the after show though).
Abe is so crazy, he would have seen the show eventually and she’s acting like so innocent
Alexis is actually right, if you research it, cousins having children isn’t actually a problem. It’s when several generations do this that it causes genetic issues. Cousins marrying is rather common all around the world and children are born without incident. It’s still probably not the best idea because of logistics but genetically, she is right.
Whose house did Grace and the girls go to then?
I gotta admit, I kind of liked Grace and Dylan. They seemed sweet – very naive, but at least kind. I’m kind of glad their situation isn’t as bad as portrayed.