Over the years, Leah Messer has criticized MTV and the folks behind Teen Mom 2 for various editing choices, but in a new interview, she praises the network and her three kids for getting her through a very dark period in her life.
Leah told Hollywood Life that her upcoming book, Hope, Grace & Faith, will cover the period where she was struggling with an addiction to prescription pills that caused her to seriously consider taking her own life.
“I was suicidal and I go into details [in my book] about exactly how I was suicidal and why I was suicidal,” Leah told the site.
“And had it not been for my kids, which is why I named my book Hope, Grace and Faith, I wouldn’t be here today. There would be no Leah.”
She went on to say that her manager Lindsay Reilly and the people she works with at MTV were also pivotal in saving her life.
“My kids wouldn’t have a mom had it not been for also MTV and Lindsay,” Leah said. “But yes. Those two things will be in [my book].”
As ‘Teen Mom 2’ fans know, Leah was previously very reluctant to even admit she was struggling with addiction, denying that she went to an Arizona treatment center to receive drug rehab. In the last year or so, though, she has opened up about that period in her life.
The Ashley broke the news back in May 2015 that MTV basically forced Leah to go to the Arizona treatment center, even though Leah didn’t want to go at the time. (She even left the center after less than a day, only to return soon after.)
“The production source tells The Ashley that the show’s producers had to essentially force Leah to go,” The Ashley reported in 2015. “They used something in her contract terms to force her to go to rehab, and from what the source told The Ashley, producers basically refused to continue their contract with her until she went.”
Leah’s addicton led to the break-up of her marriage to Jeremy Calvert, and caused her to lose custody of the two kids she shares with ex-husband Corey Simms. While Corey, Jeremy and others in Leah’s life openly talked about her drug problem on the show, Leah refused to.
These days, Leah says she’s willing to be more open about her past in order to help others.
“The purpose behind the book is for others to be just as vulnerable and be able to share their truth without feeling shameful,” Leah told Hollywood Life. “For the longest time I think there were a lot of things in my life that happened that I felt ashamed of, definitely.”
Leah said that, at the time, she didn’t think that she had a drug problem.
“Going through all of that I didn’t see what the world was seeing, which is also why I get to connect with others that are struggling with addiction, struggling with maybe breaking familial cycles,” Leah told Hollywood Life. “At that time in my life, honestly everyone could’ve told me until they were blue in the face that there was an issue. And it’s almost like when you’re struggling and in that place you don’t see it. It’s like you’re a completely different person in the same body.”
Hope, Grace & Faith is set to be released on May 5. Click here for more information!
RELATED STORY: ‘Teen Mom 2’ Star Leah Messer Discusses Dating a Man in Costa Rica, Her Sister Victoria’s Baby Daddy & More on “Coffee Convos” Podcast
(Photos: MTV; Instagram)
38 Responses
I’m happy that she’s clean and all, but she’s still not owning up completely to being on the drugs. The only reason she is now, is to promote her book.
She’s def done a number on her kids, too.
are you her sponsor? are you at meetings with her? are you her higher power? I’m guessing no to all that, which means she owes you and everyone else exactly nothing.
And I always thought the “dye in the baby’s head” thing was her “schools ain’t well” explanation of a PET-Scan.
It’s about time she publicly owns up to it, it sucks that the timing seems to be about selling books because as they say in the program – “you’re as sick as your secrets..” And owning her past is only going to help her sobriety, and her life in general, moving forward. It was SO blatantly obvious how high she was in that tanning salon scene, and when she was holding her brothers baby.
Can someone tell me about the dye in the baby’s head? I don’t remember it
In the 6th season I think, she was talking to Ali’s doctor assistant and she was “high, high, high”. She spoke about the dye on the babies head.
She was probably melting her hair dye lessons with her daughter health struggle…
A very sad scene to watch!
Does anybody else think she brings her daughters in her strange new cult?
I’m worry about “my girls will know they are powerful and can shape the World anyway they want”. It looks like a Scientologist speech (I hope it’s the good word to describe Tom Cruise’s friends).
Did she ever get that dye out of the baby’s head?
I’m proud of her. I have lost many friends to addiction. It’s a disease, not a character flaw. I understand that Leah has more resources than most people. But at the same time, a lot of people have those same resources (cough, Amber) and don’t use the opportunity to get healthy like Leah has. I think this “ Cult” stuff isn’t a concern yet. If she starts selling leggings, scency, Monet, or Ro Dan, then I’ll be concerned.
She doesn’t owe anyone anything as far as owning up to her past addiction, except herself. Her sobriety is between her and her higher power of her understanding. Period. I applaud her for getting sober. I hope like hell she stays sober, or if she relapses, that she can get back up and get on track.
This show started out with great intentions and has turned into a clown show.
MONKEY!!!
I’ve been watching since 16&P and Leah has grown the most. She isn’t hanging on to bad relationships anymore, she’s focused on her girls and seems to be genuinely happy. I don’t like her cult thing but hopefully she’ll get bored of it soon. I wish her nothing but the best and and I’m happy to see her overcome her past issues. Hopefully it all stays in the past.
Not to forget she actually was (and probably is again, if we take sleeping with Jeremy again on the side-hope that has stopped too) single for quite some time, a thing most of her cast mates haven’t even heard off!
Has she though?? Remember she was seeing her PT the guy Jeremy tweeted “next one’s going to be an oreo” or something because he was black? He was never shown on TM2 though.
She also had the guy around that the girls didn’t like fairly recently.
And the costa rican guy who was on the reunion.
MTV has been good to cover up for Leah
I’m hoping there’s a chapter about Robbie and the Deer Cam scandal. I’ll never forget Germy’s “caught ya slut” tweet!
Caught you on deer cam bitch!
Too bad we never got the spinoff we all truly wanted…Teen Mom: Deer Cam ?
I don’t remember that one. Please tell me more!
I hope there is a chapter “Robbies D, the only thing that made me happy”.
Honestly I think it’s sad that it’s had gone on so long that these girls will not be able to do anything really with their life.they’ve all “written” books, made over priced clothing lines and promote tons of crap. The moment the show ends that’s it. Nobody is going to buy this stuff anymore and won’t care what’s being promoted. They will have this huge gap in their resume where all they can say it “mtv Star” which would come out sounding pretty bad. They are all stunted and seem to not get that their kids are 5-6 years away from being the age when all this started for them, yet still they exploit them when their friends will see it all at school. I think that’s pretty selfish. The kids never asked for this life and now it gets to be relieved for years to come for all to see. Congrats on these girls not wanting privacy for their kids sake. Even the books give way too much.
I agree with you 1,000%. Most of these “girls” have no idea how to adult at all. They can barely make it through without piles of money being thrown in their laps. I hate to say it, but Caitlin, Leah, Amber, Farrah, etc. are not qualified for anything more than a cashier job, does anyone think that they would be able to survived on a cashier’s budget. Mtv has given them a celebrity lifestyle with no idea how to cope when it’s gone. No way Maci and Taylor, Chelsea and Cole’s and Cate and Ty’s stupid, bootleg clothing lines would have ever gotten off the ground without the TM publicity. They really should try to inspire their fanbase at this juncture by bettering themselves as people, not selling more s**t. I have to say, I don’t like Kail personally, but I have to commend her for having the foresight to know that TM will end one day and getting her Bachelor’s.
Can someone tell me what the dye in the babies head means.
We are all still wondering ourselves! Maybe Leah clarifies in the book what she was talking about, but she probably doesn’t even know herself. Best explanation is it was just the ramblings of Leah being strung out.
I think they were talking about doing some testing on Ali (maybe even injecting dye??) and Leah went off on some rambling about dye on the baby’s head and repeated it a few times while nodding off. The poor Dr’s assistant on the phone was like “sorry, what?” a few times and so confused before ending the call.
And then there was the time she was nodding off holding Victoria’s baby and someone had to come and take the child off her.
Remember back when Farrah was working in a pizza place, going to school, and then got scammed trying to sell her car? THAT was real teen mom, needing more money type of stuff than any of the BS that has been shown since then. I think Maci, Chelsea, and possibly Farrah would have all been okay without the show, due to their family support; Kailyn wanted to be better, and probably would have eventually gotten there on her own (not as well off financially, but still okay). The rest are all questionable, but perhaps they would have found some ambition and drive, with no MTV money to pay the bills.
The one thing I really wonder about, is how much the big paychecks contributed to Farrah’s mental problems, though. I know it’s typical for teen parents to be emotionally stunted, but I think that not having to work for anything has made this group a little bit more so than the average person who became a parent at a young age. I do think Amber would be the same, with or without MTV: in and out of jail (probably more often than she is now, though), mentally ill, abusive, etc. I’m sure there would be no Andrew, and therefore no James, and I think she would have walked away from Leah completely, because she would have no ‘image’ to uphold.
MTV does a lot of covering up.
Exactly! Watching MTV force her to rehab and being open and honest about the whole situation would’ve been a lot more interesting than the crap they edited and showed us instead. One of the reasons I quit watching this show, it’s the same shit week after week, When in the tabloids you read what’s really going on with these girls, and it’s a ton more interesting then the sugar coated crap MTV shows us.
I don’t buy it that she didn’t think she had a drug problem… she keeps not fully owning up to her addiction. I remember another article on this site where she was claiming she didn’t think she was a drug addict because the pills were originally prescribed by her doctor, and I call bullshit on that… the moment you start draining your bank account and getting your pills from somewhere other than a pharmacy is the moment you should realize you have a drug problem ???
Based on what we know about how many pills were being pumped in to West Virginia a lot of her pills were probably coming from the Dr
Obviously, you should realize you have a problem, but so many people honestly don’t. Denial is the major hurdle that addicts have to get over before they can get better. The first step in AA and NA is realizing you have a problem. So many people struggle to believe that they do. They think “I could stop any time,” “I deserve to relax,” “rather than drink, I just use drugs, but it’s the same as going to the bar with friends,” “This is just how I treat my physical ailment,” “This is how I medicate my my mental ailment,” “my doctor hates me and isn’t prescribing the right amount so I have to buy from a dealer,” “at least I’m not injecting drugs,” “at least I’m not prostituting myself,” “I still have a job.” It’s part of the disease to think you don’t have a problem. Even if anyone else in your life was doing the exact same things you were doing and you thought they were an addict, it’s always somehow different or justified for yourself.
Everything you wrote is so true.
She knew it was a problem or she wouldn’t have constantly lied about it and made up ridiculous stories to explain what was going on with her.
Jesus God Leah!!
You called lol …
When all of these “confessions” come in the form of a book promotion, I have a hard time accepting how genuine it all is. I like Leah and I think she’s a nice person, but the fact that she’s “writing” a book is totally laughable. None of these girls are role models for anyone. 90% of them are entitled divas now that wouldn’t have anywhere near the type of lifestyle had they not gotten pregnant at 16 and hit the Mtv jackpot. The show has clearly inspired countless young girls to look for fame through their uteruses (I’m looking at you Young & Pregnant) nothing here to look up to, time to cancel the franchise.
I hope there’s a chapter called “The Dye in the Babies Head”.
So she’s finally admitting it was drugs? Never thought I’d see the day.