Original 16 and Pregnant star Whitney Purvis has been arrested and booked into a Georgia jail after she failed repeatedly to pay child support to her baby daddy, Weston Gosa.
Whitney— who starred on the very first season of the MTV show alongside Teen Mom stars Maci Bookout, Amber Portwood and Catelynn Lowell— shares two sons with Weston: Weston Jr. (who was born on “16&P”) and River. Both boys currently live with Weston and his wife.
According to court records pulled by The Ashley, a Complaint for Contempt was first issued by the court in May 2023, stating that Whitney had “willfully failed and refused to comply” with a 2018 court order for child support.
The 2018 order that Whitney has allegedly violated granted Weston legal and physical custody of the boys, while Whitney was given visitation every weekend. (Whit’s grandma or grandpa are required to supervise those visits.) Whitney was also allowed to see the kids on holidays, provided she and Weston could agree on it.
As of October 2023, Whit owed Weston more than $18,800 in back child support. At the time, she was ordered to pay Weston $353 a month in child support, as well as $20 a month towards the $18k+ she owed in back child support. A hearing was held on July 1 to discuss the situation, and an arrest order was issued for Whitney on July 2, stating that she was in contempt of the court order to pay child support. (This is at least the third time that Whitney was deemed to be in contempt, but she managed to stave off an arrest both times previously.)
Whitney (who gave birth to a third son last year but has not publicly revealed who the father is) was ordered to serve 48 hours in the Floyd County Jail. She has also been ordered to pay her monthly child support, in addition to her outstanding arears, until it is paid off.
A court hearing has been set for August 5.
As The Ashley has previously reported, Whitney has had several other run-ins with the law, most of which concern Weston. Although Weston and Whitney were told in their 2018 custody order that they were not to have any contact, except for whatever is necessary in order to coparent, Whitney has been arrested several times for violating this.
Back in 2022, Whitney was arrested and charged with making felony terroristic threats and acts against Weston. In texts sent prior to her most recent arrest, Whitney allegedly threatened to poison her ex by making him “inhale toxic gas,” kill him, and “slit [his] throat,” among other disturbing messages.
Back in 2018, Whitney allegedly threatened Weston via text message, claiming she’d “blow [his] brains out.”
When questioned by police at the time, Whitney claimed she was motivated to send the texts because her ex “had cheated on her, beat her, and humiliated her.”
Weston filed a petition for temporary protective order in August 2020 against Whitney and received it for one year.
In 2015, Whitney broke into Weston’s home and allegedly beat him with a broom. Following the incident, Whitney was arrested on two charges– criminal trespassing and aggravated assault.
Whitney was one of only two girls from the first season of “16 and Pregnant” who weren’t chosen by MTV to star on ‘Teen Mom.’ (The other girl is Ebony Jackson). Last month, Whitney made a Facebook comment about her time on “16 and Pregnant” and mentioned how she felt about not being chosen to continue with the franchise.
“I go back and forth on if I regret not doing [’16 and Pregnant’],” she told someone on Facebook who asked her about it. “I don’t think being on television at a young age is healthy for anyone, especially reality TV. But on the other hand that’s a lot of money to walk away from. There’s a lot of pros and cons to it. I hated my episode, I’ve watched it once and never again.”
A court hearing has been set for Whitney for August 5.
Watch the blast-from-the-past clip of Whitney’s “16 and Pregnant” below for a refresher of her story.
RELATED STORY: “16 & Pregnant” Star Selena Gutierrez Breaks Her Silence on Her Baby Daddy Sean Garinger’s Death
(Photos: Facebook; Floyd County Jail)
8 Responses
I honestly want to know what happened to her to send her down this path. She appeared so mild and timid on her episode, unless it was just a farce.
Wait I thought both Whitney & Ebony were offered a spot on Teen Mom but both turned it down. Whitney because Weston had medical issues & Ebony because she & Josh were living on a military base & couldn’t film, but this article says they weren’t chosen.
They were not given the opportunity to move forward. -The Ashley
And this lunatic has another baby? CPS should get involved
Well they already had Amber on the show, they didn’t need another teen mom EXACTLY like her I guess!
So sad that she had another son. I hope that baby has someone caring and stable in his life.
I agree, weird that she hasn’t gotten prison time.
Why hasn’t she gotten prison time? She’s threatened his life multiple times and clearly knows she can get away with it.