Thursday night’s episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter celebrated the 16th birthday of Bentley– one of the original ‘Teen Mom’ kids– but it also highlighted how being on television since birth has, at times, negatively affected the kids who were born on MTV.
Leah Shirley— the daughter of original 16 and Pregnant and ‘Teen Mom’ couple Amber Portwood and Gary Shirley— opened up on-camera during the episode about how watching old clips of the show can be painful, particularly scenes that show how poorly Amber treated both Gary and baby Leah.
During the episode, Gary talks to Leah, who informs him that her friends are starting to realize that she’s on a TV show. (Apparently high schoolers aren’t among the dozens of people tuning into ‘Next Chapter’ each week?)
Leah said that her classmates have been showing her old ‘Teen Mom’ clips, which frequently get posted to TikTok. Leah tells her dad that it’s “weird” and sometimes “painful” to watch old clips of the show, which often show traumatic incidents that have been forever captured on tape.
“I see the older ones, from when I was like two, and it’s just weird to watch because it’s always, like, Amber screaming at you and you leave,” Leah says.
As longtime ‘Teen Mom’ fans are aware, Amber was filmed multiple times during the early seasons physically assaulting Gary, sometimes when baby Leah was in the room. (Amber actually ended up getting elevated charges because of that during one of her arrests for domestic violence against Gary.)
Leah also admitted that it’s hard for her to watch clips in which Amber neglected her as a baby.
“And then there’s one clip where [Amber] is like, ‘Why is Leah crying?’ when she is in a complete opposite room, just leaving me,” Leah added. “It’s just weird. I think those ones are kind of painful to watch because it’s little me.”
@atoztea ♬ original sound – Topics&Tea
Leah went on to state that she believes she has “a lot of issues because of Amber and the experiences that I’ve had,” many of which were recorded for the show and accessible to anyone who wants to watch them over and over again.
As ‘Teen Mom’ fans know, Leah— who has lived with Gary and his wife Kristina since she was a toddler— is currently estranged from her mother (whom she now refers to “Amber.”) Last year, Amber was informed that Leah does not want a relationship with her, so the ‘Teen Mom’ star has frequently taken to TikTok Live to discuss her estrangement from Leah, and to accuse Gary of some very unsavory things.
Anyway, during Thursday’s episode Gary apologized to Leah for not getting her out of the toxic situation with Amber sooner.
“Honestly, Leah, no joke, I wish I had done more,” Gary said. “Like, I wish I had just took you and left instantly, and not left you there [with Amber].”
Leah accepted her dad’s apology, telling him it was OK, given that she didn’t actually remember everything that happened. However, having her (and her parents’) toxic past recorded and now regurgitated on social media has taken its toll on Leah.
“Watching those videos, that has got to be hard,” Gary told his daughter. “And you don’t remember it. I don’t know if that’s like a trauma thing…and your brain automatically shuts off the bad stuff.”
Leah agrees, telling Gary she’d like to enter therapy so she can “overcome” the trauma of her past.
“[I want to be able to] forgive [Amber] and just move on,” Leah said. “I think it would help to have someone guide me on how to forgive someone, because it’s hard for me to do that.”
During past episodes, Leah and Gary have discussed how Amber has been in and out of Leah’s life for years, something Amber has denied is true.
“I’m not really sure when I realized when she, like, wasn’t there,” Leah told the cameras during Thursday’s episode. “But I know I do have abandonment issues from her not being around. But I do know there’s a lot of things going on [in Amber’s life] that makes it difficult for her to be able to be there for me. And I feel like it does affect me every day, because I’m always scared that Kristina’s gonna leave me. I’m always scared that people are just gonna leave me for no reason.”
RELATED STORY: Amber Portwood Defends Her Decision to Lie About Possibly Being Pregnant to Get Out of Filming for ‘Teen Mom: The Next Chapter’
(Photos: MTV)
24 Responses
Leah has already shown so much maturity by cutting Amber off. Leah knows she deserves better than ambers wack ass inconsistent nonsense. There’s a wild irony knowing that Amber will see that clip and then hop online, blame Gary for… something? and continue to create hell for Leah. Every video she does gives more fuel to the troll fire and someone will eventually show Leah. Like, imagine just trying to get through high school and some kid sends you a video like “dude your mom is fkn insane”. That has to put Leah in such a fkd up position. None of these kids deserve that but you know it’s happening 😕 honestly, the show should’ve ended when the kids turned 10 at the absolute latest
16 is still a child you know. The parent is responsible. You’re ignorant
I feel bad for all these kids who are nearing adulthood now. I’m almost convinced MTV is letting this show air until one of the originals becomes a grandmother. I’m not as worried about Leah or Bentely so much as some of the other kids.
amber better not even try to find a way to make this a pity party for her and her mental illness preventing her from being there or say it’s not true and try to blame it on others. she has the chance not many people have and rewatch their mistakes and learn and grow from them yet she still didn’t do enough to to not traumatize this poor girl, nobody deserves that feeling
This truly breaks my heart for Leah. She is already dealing with feelings of abandonment from Amber which Amber won’t even acknowledge because she thinks she is a “damn good mom”. Leah has always been the sweetest kid. I would get so mad at Amber screaming at baby Leah for no reason or saying Leah got no discipline when she was barely walking. Meanwhile Amber is high out of her mind letting her boyfriend she knew for 5 minutes change Leah’s diaper and wondered why Gary was upset about that. I remember all of this years later. But Leah has to relive this which is unbelievably hard I’m sure.
I love that she has Kristina. Kristina will always put Leah’s needs above her own. I think Gary is a good Dad but he honestly has been shoving Amber down Leah’s throat for years even when Leah said she was done with Amber. He would guilt Leah and say “Yeah…but that’s your mom. She is always going to be your mom”. No that isn’t Leah’s Mom. Kristina is Leah’s mom. Amber gave birth. She has never been a mom. I’m glad that Gary seems to now be listening to Leah.
I have enjoyed watching Leah grow up but honestly it’s too much for these kids. They didn’t ask for this. They are getting older and they don’t need to see all of the bad pop up on their tik tok feed. And Leah shouldn’t have had to talk on camera about her feelings of abandonment. I’m not a Chelsea fan but I respect her. The last season Chelsea filmed with Aubree she was asking personal things about Adam and Adam’s family. Aubree would clearly and visibly get upset and to her credit Chelsea would immediately back off. Then Chelsea walked away later that season and acknowledged that the show was too invasive for Aubree. That’s what all of these parents should be doing but as long as MTV keeps paying they will never walk away from the money. Regardless of the effects it could have on their kids and that’s sad.
Amber is and will forever be a trash bag. Idc. Leah is so wonderfully special and articulate. It’s so strange to hear her call her mom Amber but rightfully so. Gary tried to keep the relationship alive between mother/ daughter despite Amber’s ridiculous behaviour but also to hang onto Amber. It was all messy but he was the best of the two to try. He stepped up as a parent when Amber went to gel and she now has no one but herself to blame for this current outcome. I pray Leah gets the healing she wants and deserves.
Leah is the most beautifully articulate person to come out of Teen Mom. What a lovely person she is turning out to be.
I love her foresight to know she needs to talk to a therapist to help her sort out her feelings about Amber.
I hope Gary and Kristina help her find someone to talk to. I hope they feel proud of the person they’ve raise.
Sweet Leah, I hope only good things for your future
Amber still won’t take any responsibility for what happened, Gary said to Leah that maybe he could have handled things better and was at least listening to what she had to say. Leah said she wants to be able to forgive Amber and move on but that is hard when Amber won’t ever say sorry to Leah for anything. Leah is a credit to Gary and Kristina and I wish Amber could see how amazing the daughter she abandoned is.
Gary and Kristina have done an amazing job with Leah. She is smart, level-headed, self-aware, and incredibly stable considering all she has been through with Amber. If she does begin therapy, I believe she will actually listen to the therapist and be able to heal and move on.
Meanwhile Amber has been through 13 therapists b/c according to her, they weren’t any good. In other words, they said something that wasn’t completely praising Amber, so she stormed out of there and had a hissy fit and never went back. Very sad that Leah is way more of an adult than her mother.
I just got finished watching the old episodes on Paramount. Gary wasn’t the greatest father back then either. He is now, but he did a lot of crappy things to Amber and was just as bad of a parent. He was pretty neglectful himself. He just wasn’t AS bad as Amber. I don’t think he should get a free pass by any means.
I agree he did some crappy things to Amber, but I definitely wouldn’t say he was just as bad of a parent. Every time we saw Amber, Leah was crying and hungry in the crib and Amber was asleep or on her phone or relaxing. I remember Gary telling Dr. Drew once that Amber would leave Leah in the crib for half a day and Amber did not disagree with that. Gary was always the one to get her up in the mornings, do all the meals, diaper changes, etc.
Refresh my memory what crappy things he did to Amber. I remember her yelling at Gary for no reason due to mental illness. Like making something out of nothing and becoming out her mind mad at him. Also, I remember Gary having a job while Amber didn’t.
Go back and watch the old episodes. You will see a lot of crappy things he did.
After watching the old episodes, I don’t believe he became a stable or a decent parent until Kristina came around. I know I will get downvoted for that, but people’s memories change now that he is doing a good job. He was terrible back in the day…go watch.
Honestly that’s why i asked bc i know he wasn’t perfect to be doing “crappy” things, well what were they? I remember Amber not getting her way and her losing her mind.
This child is BEGGING for stability and peace.
It’s time to tell MTV to stick it, Gary.
I really doubt they’re forcing Leah to film. If she really really didn’t want to, there’s no way Kristina and Gary would make her.
And honestly the way the show is now, it’s only snippets of scripted conversations here and there. It’s not like they’re following these families up close and personal, like the old days (Ryan driving high, Jenelle nodding out on couch, Amber screaming and crying). The bad stuff’s already out there.
This makes me want to cry for poor Leah. What’s really messed up is that if Gary actually had tried to get toddler Leah out of that situation, he wouldn’t have been able to, the courts would have almost certainly given Amber primary custody just because she’s the mother. It took her acting like a raging psycho on national television time-and-timw again and going to prison for Gary to ensure he’d get primary custody. He definitely shouldn’t have continued to push Leah to have a relationship with Amber for as long as he did, though.
Leah is fortunate that she has a father that actually cared for her, and even more so that Kristina came into her life to be the mother she deserves. They’ve raised her well and she has a bright and happy future. She’s already vastly more mature than Amber ever has been. She could have easily ended up in a situation like Jenelle’s kids with no decent parent around.
It is so sad. It’s hard to watch.
Poor Leah. Why tf is she not in therapy yet? Step it up, Gary. Make her an appointment with someone because she deserves that.
And Amber telling Gary to ‘put her up’ like Leah is some kind of animal that belongs in a cage. Amber’s a piece of shit *spits*
Leah is 16, I am sure she can express whether or not she wants to go to therapy. I’ll be damned if you’re telling Gary to “step it up” 😳
I’ll be damned if you’re telling me not to tell Gary to step it up 😂 Leah is having shit thrown in her face at school showing all the crap Amber put her through & if Gary wanted to step it up, he’d tell MTV to fuck off bc his daughter’s mental health is more important than the paycheck.
Also- Kids are KIDS. Until their frontal lobe is developed they can’t just do as they please. They need teaching and guidance, and part of that is scheduling an appointment for her mental health as it’s obvious she’s holding trauma. Kid is screaming for therapy. So no- not saying Gary is a bad parent but there are ALWAYS things parents can do improve their parenting.
Relax lol
Are you amber
She just expressed she is ready for therapy. I am sure Kristina has been communicating and watching for it. I think it was this last round of abandonment from Amber plus the discussion on the clips. Leah is going to be ok eventually and I hope she keeps Amber at arms length.
I teared up reading her comments on the situation.