Former Unexpected star McKayla Adkins is opening up about the disturbing things she says producers of the show forced her and the other cast members to do and say, despite many of them being under 18 at the time.
In a series of TikTok videos posted over the weekend, the now 21-year-old called those behind the TLC reality show “evil” and accused them of sexualizing her, the other minor cast members and their young children. McKayla told her TikTok followers that she knew she’d “probably get in trouble” for revealing some of the things that happened behind-the-scenes of the show, but she stated she was tired of being threatened with lawsuits in order to stay quiet.
“It’s not just me. This show really does sexualize minors who are pregnant and their children, and if you’re still watching this show, why? Like, what the f**k? Stop,” McKayla said in one video. “For those of you who love TLC’s ‘Unexpected,’ I don’t know how.”
McKayla— who appeared on Seasons 1-3 of the show— went on to describe why she feels like the producers purposely put the show’s young stars in inappropriate situations.
“That show is f**ked up. The producer or director or whatever she is, is f**ked up, and they’re evil. They literally sexualized us as minors,” McKayla— who was 16 when she began filming the first season of ‘Unexpected’– said.
She later added that her Season 3 costar Rilah Ferrer feels similarly to her in regard to what happened to them behind-the-scenes of the show.
“It f**ked us up,” McKayla said. “It really f**ked us up, doing that show.”
McKayla went on to describe some of the disturbing things the producers made them talk about, as well as some of the questionable things she says they made them do.
“They asked us how we lost our virginity, where we f**ked, who we f**ked. They asked me if I would pierce my f**king vagina in front of my grandparents, and they asked my grandpa if he knew what piercing your vagina meant,” she said, reminding her followers that she was under 18 when many of these incidents occurred.
“They forced someone to be in the delivery room with me while I was giving birth and somebody, the editor…saw me naked at some point,” McKayla said. (She had just turned 17 when she gave birth to her son Timothy in 2017, just FYI. She was 18 when her daughter Gracelynn was born in 2019.)
In a second video uploaded to TikTok the same night, McKayla openly wondered if anyone from the TLC team may have downloaded the footage of her and the other underage girls naked while giving birth.
“Who’s to say they didn’t download that s**t and keep it for themselves?” she said.
McKayla also claimed that she was disturbed when she saw one of the kids’ “private parts” shown on an episode, prompting her to tell the show’s producers that she didn’t want her daughter’s naked body shown on TV after her birth.
“They basically said that I had no say in it,” she stated.
Another time, McKayla claims she was “forced to not wear a shirt during one of the scenes,” and instead had to wear a sports bra that the crew gave her. (She did not say how old she was when that allegedly occurred, though.)
“They asked us what our vaginas felt like after giving birth. During filming, at all times, there were grown men and women who all heard these things and were staring at us while we had to answer these f**ked up questions,” McKayla said.
“They pushed my f**king boundaries to the limit,” she declared, later adding, “I had voiced my concerns with the production crew every single time I had an issue and TLC either took my money or threatened to sue me.”
(While McKayla didn’t explain what she meant by the networking taking her money, The Ashley suspects that she means she was fined for doing something against her show contract. Oftentimes, this can also happen if the reality TV refuses to do something that they are contractually obligated to do.)
“They asked every single girl who has breastfed on the show if they could do it for the camera,” McKayla said in the second video. “I had a producer up in my f**king s**t while I was trying to breastfeed my son, like literally face into t**ies, basically. Does nobody else find that f**king sus[pect]?”
“Me and Rilah are both uncomfortable with half of the s**t that they put out there, so who knows who else [from the show] is also affected by what they did. All I know is that it’s a really f**ked up situation.
“That show, and the people behind it, are all f**king evil.”
Back in January 2020, Rilah— who left the show after one season— also spoke out about her experience on the show.
“These people [behind the show] wasted my time, she said, later adding, “After I gave birth, these TV people rushed me out of the hospital so they can film and get GoPros in the car. I couldn’t even enjoy time with my baby. Hours and hours of filming interviews…just for the footage to be cut off. Like why choose me to be on this dumb show if you barely show my footage? Me not doing the show could’ve saved me the headache of getting attacked by a bunch of boomer ass bitches on FB and IG. It is what it is though. Just never again.”
McKayla told her TikTok followers that she is tired of staying quiet about her experience on ‘Unexpected.’
“I’ll probably get in trouble for this but it needs to be said,” she wrote on the TikTok video. “I’m tired of being scared of them. #TLC #Unexpected.”
@spiritual.kay111 Imma go live on Instagram rn. Metaphysical.Mckayla111 is my username ##tlcunexpected
In the comment section of her second video, McKayla answered fans’ questions regarding why she stayed on the show for three seasons if it was as bad as she claimed.
“Why did I do it for three seasons? I was told I’d be rich by Season 3,” McKayla wrote. “I was in a contract. We were promised things would change if we did another season. Obviously, none of that happened. We were played.
“The fact y’all are [blaming] minors bc ‘we knew what we were getting into’ when the network recruits young pregnant girls and exploits their lives, sexualizes us and makes us do things we’re uncomfortable doing.
“Other parents obviously didn’t know the extent of things,” she continued. “Mine did whatever [the producers] said bc they threatened to sue. Our parents weren’t present for every interview where they asked us extremely inappropriate questions. Stop blaming us for the network’s actions.”
McKayla claimed that the producers told the girls different things to get them to sign on.
“They told Rilah she’s be a ‘model’ and would be on the cover of magazines,” she wrote. “We all needed the money…I was told I’d be so rich by Season 3 [that] I’d be able to buy a house and a car. It was a lie.”
RELATED STORY: Former ‘Unexpected’ Star McKayla Adkins Announces She’s Pregnant with Her Third Child, Two Weeks After Revealing Her Engagement
(Photos: TikTok, Instagram, TLC)
25 Responses
This spoiled brat never did anything she didn’t want to do, she’s just complaining now because she didn’t get the riches she thought she was going to get from showing off her stupidity. She treated everyone around her like garbage and I’m sure she was no different with the staff of TLC. When you build a reputation of being a nasty person that makes up stories, people stop believing you. Even if what she is saying is true; it’s unfortunate that it’s coming from her drama queen mouth. I’d prefer to hear it from one of the young ladies with a better reputation.
Then… don’t sign up to be on a show that is focused on you being a teen, having a kid? LOL
She didn’t care as long as she was getting a check now it’s abuse
Are ya’ll serious? sHe HaS aN oNlY fAnS wHy Is ShE bItChInG? Are you really asking the difference between feeling like someone else oversexualized you and choosing to own your body and post photos? Are ya’ll the same idiots that are confused about the difference between someone sharing a photo of a woman in her underwear and her willingly posting a photo of herself in a bikini?!?
I can tell you the difference if you’re really that fucking confused. That difference is CONSENT.
You think she can’t take up for herself. You must’ve not watched the show. She was a b to everyone including her grandparents. They had consent. She signed or had someone sign a contract for 3 seasons. She wasn’t a Naïve little girl as she’s Portraying. I don’t think someone seeing you give birth is sexy. The hospital staff would make anyone stay away if she requested. She made Calean stay away. So she knew. So BS. Money grab.
So she can’t feel oversexualized by questions she was asked repeatedly? She can’t feel oversexualized by being told to wear a sports bra instead of a shirt? She can’t feel oversexualized by having cameras zoomed in on her chest while feeding her child?
This girl isn’t wrapped too tight is she….
I don’t know much about this person but according to the comments, she has made questionable decisions. What I have a hard time understanding is, how does that justify the inappropriate behavior she endured by adults? Especially since what she is speaking out about happened before she ventured into the online world.
Agree completely. Anything that was inappropriate that was done to those girls before they were of age is NOT OKAY. It almost doesn’t matter what they’ve done on their own since they turned 18. I have no doubt that they were subjected to pervy sh*t as minors on the show. All the “teen” shows are suspect.
She must be joking.
HAHAHAH Like she really cares, she’s got an OnlyFans site and shows her goodies off for $$ on there. Get out of here!
Sexualized them. Come on now. First she signed up for 3 seasons. Second she has a friends only account. If I were sexualized. I’d be in therapy and wouldn’t be showing my parts for everyone to see. Yes she has problems but it’s from her mom doing drugs and leaving her. It also didn’t help her father committed suicide. Seems to me she wants to sue to make money. Since she has never had a real job in her life. Get a job and quit laying around smoking. Take care of your own kids. Quit making excuses. Unexpected was about teen pregnancy. Of course the sex talk was going to come up. Let’s not forget Calean wanted the kids off the show. McKayla fought to keep them on it.
Yup…This for sure wreaks of a money grab…she even said it herself, she thought she would be rich by season 3, and that didn’t happen and now here she comes with these crazy allegations.
I don’t blame the young girls for participating, I blame their parents (or grandparents in McKayla’s case). They let the girls and their privacy be exploited wishing they’d end up rich like the TM girls. Why don’t you better teach them to go to school and get a decent job?
I’m not really understanding her view on being sexualized but maybe it’s just in how it was communicated. But the fact that so many people have issues with TLC and their production teams seems incredibly telling ?
Says the girl who makes a living off of p0rno videos on Only Fans. Also, if you were so creeped out, why stay for THREE years and ANOTHER baby/birth??!!
You all keep trying to draw parallels. She is in control of her content and what she posts. All of which stay within her own comfort zones. If that’s how she chooses to provide it’s her choice and her right to do so. Who’s to say the situation with tlc didn’t lead her to it? Also she already explained that.. she was in a contract for one and was also told after voicing all these concerns at the time that it would change but it didn’t. Either way the ones who knew what they were doing, were old enough to know better, and yet still made the choice to actively exploit minors and put them in uncomfortable situations are the ones that are at fault. I’m really not sure how adults read this and think that the child at the time is at fault bc she has an only fans as an adult and that makes her bad. If she were an actual porn star it still wouldn’t change the fact that tlc exploited minors by promising things they never delivered on and clearly were inappropriate with how they went about that.
BBBBBBBINGO!
Isn’t she on Only Fans? I seem to recall that she was posting nearly nude photos on Twitter to promote her page.
I’m not sure what that has to do with anything she said. She’s an adult now and can post what she’s comfortable with bc she is in control before she was an underage child being taken advantage of and clearly exploited and obviously was not comfortable with it either but was not in control. They clearly did not live up to expectations which I sure she went through a lot of things she wasn’t comfortable with thinking it would pay off and be worth it but that’s not what happened and that in itself will make anyone feel used and manipulated.
Yep. This interview would sound more valid if she wasn’t posting half naked pictures for money on Onlyfans. Aside from this, child abuse is and has been present in the entertainment industry for decades. But apparently as long as they can shut everyone up with money, it is no biggie, sadly. Almost all teen “stars” have been molested at one point, singers, actors, etc. Sickening.
No doubt! I wouldn’t want my children in the entertainment industry as minors. Too many creepy people exploiting them. You would think that if what McKayla says is true that her grandparents would have put a stop to it if she was being “sexualized”. Maybe it was because of the contract but you can take me to court and sue me, you wouldn’t be exploiting my children under any circumstance.
She made a sex video with Rilah, the other girl mentioned in the article