2024 was a wild year for Teen Mom scandals and trashbaggery. From breakups to fiancés who made a break for it, the year was filled with drama from the ‘Teen Mom’ stars. While most of the juicy stuff happened off-camera, The Ashley was here to fill you guys in on the scandals the cameras would have missed.

With seemingly no end in sight for the ‘Teen Mom’ franchise, fans can look forward to plenty more trashtastic scandals from MTV’s not-so-teenage breeders in 2025.

Here, The Ashley takes a look back at the most outrageous ‘Teen Mom’-related scandals and events that happened each month of 2024….

January: Catelynn Lowell Gets Slammed for Asking Fans to Donate Money So Her Dad Can Fly His Filipino Fiancé to America

Catelynn got ripped by fans in January after she created (and shared) a GoFundMe to raise money so her father could bring his fiancé to the United State from The Philippines. Cate— who had been hoping to raise $7000 with the fundraiser— asked fans to donate to the cause (even writing “even a dollar” would be helpful). Fans began calling the longtime MTV star “a grifter” and “tacky” for begging for money, despite the fact that she (and her husband Tyler Baltierra) each make a very hefty paycheck for appearing on the ‘Teen Mom’ shows! 

“You make so much money there’s no reason you can’t help him out on your own,” one of the many nay-sayers wrote.

The fundraiser ended up only raising $645, $500 of which was donated by Catelynn herself. (By the way, Catelynn’s dad’s fiancé did end up making it to the United States, and Cate’s dad married her in December.) 

 

February: Jenelle Evans Officially Leaves David Eason & Boots Him from The Land

Jenelle shocked the ‘Teen Mom’ fandom in February when she filed to officially separate from her swampy soulmate, David, after defending him for years. The couple’s stormy marriage ended after Jenelle made David leave their property, The Land, so that her son Jace could move back home. (David currently has a pending child abuse charge from his alleged assault on the teen in 2023, so Jenelle was only allowed to have one of them live with her.) Shockingly, Jenelle chose her son over her man, and once David was gone, Jenelle filed to make the separation legal. 

The swampmates battled in court throughout 2024, and both moved on quickly and found new soulmates (naturally). Once the one-year anniversary of their separation occurs in February, the couple can officially file for divorce.

 

March: Leah Messer Gets Hit with Even More Tax Liens; Bringing Her Tax Debt Over $500k

The tax bills just kept on coming for Leah in 2024, and in March it was revealed that the ‘Teen Mom 2’ star got hit with two more back-to-back tax liens! A state tax lien was delivered to Leah for $31,349. Days earlier, Leah was hit with a lien from the federal government’s West Virginia jurisdiction in the amount of $196,804.

Unfortunately for the mom of three, those latest liens were added to the previous state and federal liens she received in 2023, which totaled $290,297. The West Virginia County Clerk’s Office confirmed in March that the state and federal liens from last year were still listed as “active,” meaning Leah currently owes the government well over $500K. 

 

April: Ryan Edwards & Ex Mackenzie Each Granted Restraining Order Against the Other

Ryan and Mackenzie’s divorce and custody battle went from bad to worse in April, when a judge granted a two-year restraining order against Ryan, barring him from having any contact with Mackenzie. A Temporary Ex Parte Order of Protection was issued, with the court finding that Mackenzie was “under an immediate and present danger of abuse from” Ryan. He was ordered not to “abuse, threaten to abuse, hurt or try to hurt, or frighten” Mack or their kids.

It was also handwritten on the order that Ryan is to refrain from damaging Mackenzie’s property or “interfering with” the home’s utilities. (As The Ashley reported a year before, Ryan allegedly trashed the home he previously shared with Mackenzie and their children.)

Interestingly, the judge also ordered Mackenzie to have no contact with Ryan, issuing a “mutual restraining order.” (Mackenzie’s original request was dismissed and replaced by a mutual court order.) 

 

May: Catelynn Lowell & Tyler Baltierra Call Out Their Bio Daughter Carly’s Parents Brandon & Teresa Davis for Refusing to Allow Them to Visit Carly; 

In May, Cate and Ty sounded off on social media against the parents of their biological daughter Carly, after learning they would not get their annual visit with the teen. Catelynn went on Instagram Stories and expressed her frustration and confusion over Carly’s parents not making time for her and Tyler to see Carly. It would be the first of many times that the couple would take to social media to call out Brandon and Teresa, as well as the concept of adoption.

Brandon and Teresa responded by cutting off contact completely between their family and Catelynn and Tyler.

 

June: Amber Portwood’s New Fiancé, Gary Wayt, Goes “Missing” While On Vacation with Amber…Only to Admit He Ghosted Her & Ran Away

In June, one of the strangest scandals ever shocked the ‘Teen Mom’ World. Amber announced her engagement to Gary 2.0 and then went on vacation with him to attend her brother’s wedding in another state. Things went south and Gary left the vacation home without Amber– or his possessions. When Gary failed to contact her or his family, Amber reported her fiancé missing, crying on the Internet for his safe return, while some fans questioned if Amber had hurt him.

Police declared Gary 2.0 a missing person, only to have him turn up a few days later in another state and admit that he left voluntarily and had basically ghosted Amber. 

The couple broke up and Gary 2.0 would go on to find himself another fiancé a few months later. 

 

July: Bar Smith Charged with Kidnapping & Three Other Felonies After Allegedly Holding Estranged Wife Ashley Jones Hostage in Her Apartment 

In July, Bar was arrested in Nevada on a slew of very serious charges– including kidnapping– after he allegedly flew from California to Las Vegas and showed up unannounced at his estranged wife Ashley’s apartment…only to then allegedly hold her hostage. Ashley called her parents, who then called 911 for help, as Bar was allegedly refusing to let Ashley leave the home. Bar was eventually arrested, and details posted by The Ashley following the incident reveal what allegedly happened during the terrifying ordeal.

Bar was charged with four felonies: kidnapping, residential burglary, aggravated stalking and coercion constituting domestic violence. He has been in jail since July and will remain there until his trial begins at the end of March.

 

August: David Eason & His New Girlfriend Kenleigh Heatwole Post Cringiest Video Ever

David took a break in August from working err… going to school um….taking care of his kids hmm…dating someone his own age um…doing…whatever it is that he does all day to create what may be one of the most-cringeworthy Teen Mom music videos of all time.

David— who is 36— enlisted his 25-year-old girlfriend Kenleigh to star in his musical monstrosity, which was posted to social media. In the clip, failed “rapper” David can be seen (badly) lip-syncing to Post Malone‘s song “Guy For That” while Kenleigh hangs out the passenger side of her best friend’s her own ride, attempting to do some sort of sexy writhing moves. 

@easondavidIf I had a dime for every girl out there as great as @kendoeeee I’d still be broke!♬ original sound – David Eason

Kenleigh then joined her knight-in-shining-swamp-sweat to gaze smugly into the camera. (David even removed his “Terminator” shades so that Jenelle we can see the true “happiness” shining from his eyes.) 

David then “sings” the lyric, “I’m damn near down to my last dime,” as a smug Kenleigh legit PULLED OUT AN ACTUAL DIME. Kenleigh– confident that her man is so financially secure that he doesn’t even need spare change— then threw that dime to the wind.

The Ashley has seen a lot of cringy TikToks from the ‘Teen Mom’ clan in her day, but this one takes the cake!

 

September: Ryan Edwards’ Estranged Wife Mackenzie Accuses Him of Having a Secret Child

The Teen Mom World was sent into a tizzy in September when Mackenzie— the soon-to-be-ex-wife of Ryan— spilled some sizzling (alleged) tea about Ryan and his ever-fertile loins. Mack hit the comment section of a TikTok, and claimed that Ryan allegedly secretly fathered a fourth kid with a random woman around 2014. (As ‘Teen Mom’ fans know, Ryan shares son Jagger and daughter Stella with Mack, and son Bentley with Maci Bookout.)

When fans begged Mack to elaborate, she was more than happy to, implying that Ryan’s family has covered up his alleged secret child for more than 10 years.

“NDAs, money and connections cover a lot of transgressions,” Mack replied when she was asked how the alleged lovechild was kept secret for so long.

 

Mack also blabbed that Ryan was expecting a child with his current girlfriend Amanda Conner, a claim that turned out to be true.

While Ryan never addressed Mack’s claim directly, his mother Jen Edwards denied that Ryan has a secret child, telling The Ashley that what Mackenzie wrote was “absolutely not” true.

 

October: Jenelle Evans Ships Middle Son Kaiser Off to Tennessee, But Yanks Him Back Home Due to Public Backlash

Jenelle’s plan to unload one of her three kids did not go well. Back in October, The Ashley broke the news that Jenelle had shipped her middle son Kaiser off to Tennessee to live with his paternal grandmother, Doris Davidson. The Ashley also revealed some details of the situation—including the fact that Jenelle did not inform Kaiser that his “visit” was permanent until he was already in Tennessee. Kaiser was supposed to live with his grandmother indefinitely…until Jenelle started to get online backlash once the public found out what she had done. 

Within days, Jenelle was high-tailing it to Tennessee to yank Kaiser back to live with her in Las Vegas, leaving Doris heartbroken.

 

November: Kail Lowry & Vee Torres End Their “Baby Mamas” Podcast Non-Amicably; Kail Accuses Vee of Capitalizing Off Her Fame

In November— after weeks of recording episodes of their podcast separately—Kail and Vee finally announced that Baby Mamas No Drama was ending, with both hosts providing different (and rather vague) explanations to listeners as to why they pulled the plug. The day after announcing the end of BMND, Kail revealed that she and her formerly estranged friend Becky Hayter were launching a new podcast called Karma & Chaos, garnering Kail plenty of hate for the way she publicly handled the situation with Vee.

Kail doubled-down, releasing a podcast episode soon after in which she claimed that she and Vee were never friends, that Vee presented the podcast idea to her “under false pretenses,” and that Vee “capitalized off of” Kail’s ‘Teen Mom’ fame, among other things. Kail also credited her own fame for the podcast gaining so many fans. 

December: Amber Portwood Goes On a Christmas Eve Rant, Calling Gary Shirley a Rapist & Other Horrible Things

Amber decided to show her holiday spirit in a “different” way in December when, on Christmas Eve, she hit TikTok Live and absolutely shredded her baby daddy, Gary, after he informed her that their daughter Leah no longer wanted Amber in her life. Amber made some very serious accusations against her ex, claiming Gary had raped her, forced her into getting an abortion and more. 

Gary has yet to publicly address Amber’s claims; however, he received overwhelming support from fans in the comment section of his first Instagram post after the incident occurred. 

 

To check out more recent ‘Teen Mom’ news, click here! 

(Photos: MTV; Instagram; TikTok)