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)
56 Responses
It’s a terrible situation made worse by being recorded and relived on the internet. People come and go, people die, no matter who it is, it’s hard you just need to move on. Glad she’s going to therapy but swore she was already doing this as well along with other teen mom kids. Can’t go through life afraid someone’s going to leave, next it’ll be worried about losing her job.
Interesting that didn’t they nit want this all over the show and social media? Why now. Sure maybe to bring awareness but with the issues of previous recordings this isn’t going to help.
As a mom it hurts my heart how Leah has been affected by Amber. I’m so glad she’s had all the love and support possible from Gary and Kristina, and it’s amazing to see how mature, grounded, and level headed she’s grown up to become. Gary and Kristina have done an amazing job in raising Leah, and I’m happy the Gary mo longer fears the idea of Leah talking to a therapist.
I can’t imagine how traumatic it must be for Leah to be shown clips of Amber screaming and beating on Gary while she’s inches from them.
I wish Leah all the best in her journey navigating her way through the mess Amber created.
So sad when Leah said she worries about Kristina abandoning her. Sounds like that will never happen from what I know of Kristina from this blog since I haven’t watched the dumpster fire show in years. But Amber did so much damage and now Leah has those types of concerns.
Sounds like Leah is a wonderful young lady despite her rough start and mentally ill mother. Gary was an idiot in the early days but he stepped it up and chose a wonderful wife. Leah is probably who she is today because of Kristina and will likely be one of the most if not the most stable and successful of the TM kids. Many of the kids on the show seem at-risk for being teen parents like their parents, but not Leah.
I think Gary and Christina are great parents . I love how they listen to Leah . Leah is a great kid and will go far in life .
How heartbreaking for Leah…watch this space for how Amber makes herself the victim and this Gary’s fault somehow.
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.
Ally will be the first to get pregnant
I have seen a few people who have said the same about Ally, I am just curious why or what makes you think it would be her? I have noticed she seems so angry in every episode now… I have 1 daughter,she’s 28 now but I do remember the moody teen years but something about Ally seems to be much more than just teenage moods, hormones or whatever just seems very angry alot
I disagree about Bentley.
He was raised as coddled as Ryan was.
Everything he does will be overlooked. I don’t think he’s ever been told no.
Mama is a drunk, dad is a guilty dad and grandparents are enablers. Not a good combination at all.
Bentley seems to be very focused on his future and really seems like a good kid, so I just don’t think it’ll be him… to me Maci seems like a great mom and they seem to have a very open and healthy relationship with Bentley,at the same time I feel like she’s also raised him to know she’s not going to put up with any BS because he seems like a respectful kid! I’m just saying how it seems to me but idk I could always be 100% wrong!
Maybe it’s just good media image, but Bentley seems pretty set on at least making it to college without crashing out which puts him ahead of all of his parents in a lot of ways. He seems like he is more likely to start having issues when he gets out of school and has to figure out what he wants his life to look like after he achieves his basic goal of making it to 22 like a “normal person.” It’s unlikely he’s ever going to make the kind of mistakes Ryan does, but he’s probably going to have a hard time in adulthood when he has to start dealing with how financially irresponsible Taylor and Maci are. Taylor and Maci are the kind of parents who are perfectly fine parents to school age children – it’s extremely unlikely their kids were ever unsafe or neglected or anything like that and Bentley could depend on them to meet his emotional needs as a child. But it’s when their kid grows up and surpasses them developmentally and they can’t be depended on to help him with adult problems and/or can’t be trusted to manage their money responsibly that a normie oldest child can get overwhelmed. I actually do believe that his money was locked down properly to prevent it from getting pulled into any of Taylor and Maci’s financial shenanigans while he was a minor, but things are going to get really different in their family after the show ends and Bentley is eligible to start pulling from his trust. He’s going to feel obligated to bail them out regardless if they ask directly or not and it’s going to be really stressful. He’s probably going to also feel a lot of stress when it comes to parsing his obligation towards his siblings on his paternal side – all of those parents are like just genuinely bad parents.
The same could be said for Maci herself though. She was a good kid, got good grades, was in sports, was planning on college, and then bam, got pregnant. It happens to even the “good” kids, you just never know. Hard to escape that statistic of kids of teen parents being way more likely to become teen parents themselves (Maci’s parents were teen parents too.)
Huh??how the heck did you come to that conclusion from watching the show?? Macy ALWAYS made sure Benny was responsible and respectful. They disciplined him for sure. I think you either didn’t post attention while watching or have a horrible memory.
Also, Maci was always so weird! Always trying to get Bentley to “have girlfriends” as early as daycare/preschool. Weird behavior. I wouldn’t be at all shocked if Bentley had a kid young.
I forgot about that till now! You are so right! It felt like it was over the top especially for his age… I have 4 boys from 4 years to 20 years old now and I would ask questions about the girls they were “dating” but my questions were not like hers and I have never been pushy either, I only ask questions about the girls when my boys come home and are talking to me about the new girl they met…
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
You have to be extra bad to traumatize a child when you’re not even present most of the time.
I grew up with a very unwell mother (she had a lot of Amber’s Borderline Personality Disorder traits) that I had to live with. And it sucked. I’ve not seen or spoken to her in years, I’ve been in therapy for years, and I’m still affected.
The fact that Leah is feeling somewhat similar about Amber—a person who just pops in every now and then to disturb the otherwise normal, peaceful, and healthy home life that Leah has with her dad and step mom—is so sad. It’s like Amber did the max amount of damage she could, during the small amounts of time she had access to her daughter, and sadly, it worked.
And even those periods of “rest,” and being able to get away from Mom, and maybe not hear from her for months at a time bc she was either “depressed,” in jail, or spending all her time ranting online about shit, OR loving on a new BF….were still damaging, just in different ways than if Amber had been “present” and able to dump on Leah in person.
And yet, Leah is one of the “luckier” teen mom kids bc her abusive and horrible mother was 1)legally forced to go away long enough so that her dad could meet and marry Cristina, and 2) that her Dad even cared enough to assume full responsibility for her and didn’t just flake out and leave her to the same relatives of Amber that made Amber “like this.”
So, when even *Leah* is talking about the trauma of having one of the “teen moms” be her mother (despite barely being seen or raised by her after her toddler years, and having a father and step mom who tried hard to offset the horribleness of having Amber as a mother)…we then *know* it’s so much worse for the kids who *were* “raised” by their personality-disordered, extremely broke, barely intelligent parents.
I’m so sorry for what you had to go through honey! And I agree with you about Leah, it’s so sad… I hope she’ll be able to work thru the trauma and be able to finish growing up happy and healthy mentally and emotionally! She’s lucky to have Gary and I didn’t like Kristina for some reason in the beginning 🤷♀️no clue why but I love her and it’s awesome how she stepped in and showed out ,always loving Leah and has always been there for her! I think it’s so sweet to watch them interact b/c you can see the bond they have and tell how solid it is! Kristina is an angel and Leah needed her!
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.
I mean if it’s so obvious, what exactly are the crappy things? Specifically what things did he do that made him a bad parent? I don’t really care about the crappy things he did to Amber, being an immature/bad boyfriend doesn’t have much to do with what kind of parent they each were to Leah.
I disagree. The simple fact that Gary never once reacted to Amber, alone, makes him a great man in my eyes. Not even going to factor in that he was a good dad, always tried to take care of Amber, etc. Gary could’ve knocked Amber out. The fact that she even put her hands on him at all, showed she knew he was no danger. He paid her bills and went back to live with his mom. Amber had serious mental health issues and she was blessed to find such a caring, loving man, who also stepped up for her daughter. Ambers problems were never Gary’s fault, but he took her abuse, he clearly loved her. Let’s not forget to mention that NOBODY is perfect. And EVERY parents learns as they go with their first child, even more so if they have their child at a young age. Kristina was a blessing to Gary’s and Leah’s lives, after the pain Amber caused them. So he made mistakes, like we all do. But he’s many levels above Amber as a parent and a human being.
Not true…in the old episodes he baited her quite a bit to get reactions out of her. He also neglected Leah and walked out on her several times when she was crying and upset and just left her with Amber. Watch the episode when it was Ambers birthday and he promised she could go out with her friends. I believe it was season 2. He did things like that to her all the time. I am telling you people, you need to go back and rewatch. He was a terrible father back in the day. He used Leah as a pawn to get back at Amber several times. During fights if she didn’t agree with him he would say “fine then I’m calling CPS.” Or “you’ll never see your daughter again.” That was BEFORE the abuse. That’s a terrible thing to say to a mother. I’m telling you, just because he’s a decent father now doesn’t mean he always was. I still maintain that he didn’t turn things around until Kristina came around. You can see the progression in the episodes. Unless you’ve gone back and rewatched the episodes, don’t bother commenting. It’s easy to think of him as a saint now, but he wasn’t always.
“Don’t bother commenting” ok Jenelle who thinks she owns the internet. 🤣 I’ve watched the show over already, twice. But I don’t need your permission to respond. There are actual women who get abused by actual bad men. And people like YOU hurt THEIR cause by defending a severely abusive woman like Amber portwood.
Hhmmm…someone needs a lesson in reading comprehension. I see no defense of Amber in any of those comments. The comment was that Gary was just as bad as her in the early days, and if you had actually gone back and rewatched the episodes you wouldn’t be defending his behavior. AND if you ARE defending his behavior, I would say that you are the one who is hurting the cause of abuse. He was very verbally abusive among other things. It’s a shame and sad that that kind of behavior is excused because of the hate for someone else.
I cannot stand a persons response to someone doing unacceptable things, being “well so and so did things wrong too.” Such a gaslighting response. Nobody is perfect. But there is a huge HUGE difference between someone who is trying to do good and someone who flat out couldn’t care less.
I think the point is that if Leah is going back watching how bad Amber treated her, Gary better watch out because he treated her just as bad. I don’t see how that’s gaslighting. He has a lot to answer for as well. Just because he’s doing better now doesn’t mean he doesn’t owe Leah an explanation. Also, learn what gaslighting means, I can’t stand the overuse of that word when people don’t really know or understand what it means. It really hurts the cause of people who deal with the abuse of narcissists who actually gaslight people and hurt them through their actions…Not posts on gossip pages.
Someone excusing the actions of an abuser by saying their victim “also did things wrong” IS gaslighting. That’s abuse in and of itself. YOU clearly need to learn what gaslighting means.
Generally it IS abusers who use the technique of trying to convince their victims that they are bad too, because that make mistakes, as a way to manipulate a person into thinking abuse is just a normal mistake you should excuse. But anyone who seriously sees amber as the victim is CLEARLY abusive themselves. So it makes sense you would went down that path.
Again…please go back and re-read or maybe you tube some videos on basic reading comprehension. There is no defense of Amber in any of these comments. Pointing out Gary’s bad behavior is not defending Amber’s bad behavior. I don’t know how to break it down further. No point in further interacting with someone w/o basic comprehension skills. So sad.
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.
Never said she was forced.
The cameras need removed completely from that household. Airing out this drama that needs dealt with privately is not helping.
Gary needs to let go of this show.
He needs to be the adult here and tell MTV that he wants control of his home and they need to leave.
Yep what’s done is done but Gary can take his child off TV now and let her have a normal and stable life without having to air out this Amber drama season after season.
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
Enjoy your downvotes.
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.
Leah has gone to therapy before. Remember the reunion where Amber flipped the f*ck out because she hadn’t been informed that Leah was seeing a therapist? We don’t know why they stopped or for how long.
I keep seeing people saying this in the comment thread. Did everyone not watch the whole episode that aired? After they talked about going to therapy, Gary took her to her first appt. Then Gary and Kristina had a moment filming talking about it and Kristina said leah called her on the way to school to tell her about how the therapy appt went. She asked Gary if they thought she talked about amber and he said they did a little. So he got her in therapy that very same episode.