I Didn't Get Fired—Here's Why I Quit 'Teen Mom' for Good!

Amber Portwood has had enough of Teen Mom.

After whispers about her dismissal from the newest installment of the TV series, “Teen Mom: The Next Chapter”, the reality television personality aims to clarify the situation, asserting that although she is indeed stepping down from the show, this choice to depart was entirely hers.

She made it clear in a recent TikTok live session on March 15 that she was not terminated, but rather chose to leave voluntarily three days earlier.)

She communicated to one of the show’s managers that she intended to leave and that she was placing a greater emphasis on taking care of her mental well-being.

“My mental health,” she told fans in the TikTok live session, as seen in another video reposted by a fan March 15, “is so much more important to me right now.”

TopMob News has reached out to MTV, Teen Mom‘s production company and distributor, for comment and has not heard back.

Portwood, 34, began her reality TV career in 2009 as a cast member on the franchise’s predecessor, 16 and Pregnant. There, she documented her life with-then boyfriend Gary Shirley and her pregnancy with their first child, daughter Leah, who is now 16 and lives with her dad, his wife Kristina Shirley and their daughter Emilee, 9.

Portwood—who also shares son James, 6, with ex Andrew Glennon—went on to star on Teen Mom, which also debuted in 2009.

In 2015, she reunited with fellow longtime cast members Farrah Abraham, Catelynn Lowell and Maci Bookout on the sequel series Teen Mom OG. Portwood, the latter two and several Teen Mom 2 stars went on to star together in Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, which premiered in 2022 and is currently on season two.

Portwood has aired her grievances about Teen Mom several times in past years. “Sad to say but I’m not going to be apart of #Teenmomog [sic],” she wrote on Twitter, now X, in 2016. “The way I have been portrayed and treated is unfair.”

Two years on, she posted on Twitter, “I must leave the series now,” stating further, “The emotional turmoil caused by this show has become unbearable and I can no longer endure it.

Then in early 2019, she appeared to have second thoughts.

“I’ve been with this franchise for 10 years now, such a long time, and I just don’t want to see the show go down like that,” Portwood said on TopMob‘ Daily Pop. “I wanna amp it up a little more.”

Look back at Teen Mom couples, past and present…

Viewers watched Catelynn Lowell and now-husband Tyler Baltierra make the difficult choice to place their first daughter, Carly, for adoption, in 2009 on the inaugural season of 16 and Pregnant. After 13 years together, the fan-favorite couple wed in August 2015 and have since had three more daughters: Novalee, Vaeda and Rya.

While the absence of Carly—who lives with her adoptive parents, Brandon and Teresa Davis—still aches, the couple keep fighting for a future.

Their hope is their bond “is whatever she wants,” Catelynn told TopMob News in January 2025. “Whether she just wants a relationship with her biological siblings, if she wants to have a relationship with us, awesome. If she doesn’t, totally understand. Whatever that looks like for her. Because it needs to be adoptee-centered.”

Together less than six months when she got pregnant, viewers saw Maci Bookout struggle with an irresponsible Ryan Edwards on 16 and Pregnant. Though they got engaged, the high school sweethearts split less than a year after their son Bentley was born in 2008.

These days they’re focused on building a co-parenting relationship. “We’re in a good place,” Maci revealed to TopMob News in 2023, adding that Ryan is showing up “more consistently now than maybe he ever has before.”

Maci found her forever teammate in Texan Taylor McKinney in 2012 and the pair soon began building up their squad. They welcomed daughter Jayde in May 2015 and son Maverick a year later, then wed in Florida that October.

Partners in parenting, life and their TTM Lifestyle fashion brand, “He’s just my person,” she told TopMob News in 2023. “Even when we’ve had a rough year together, I think at the end of the day, I still choose him. I like him. And even if I want to punch him in the face sometimes, I’d rather argue with him or have a rough patch with him than never have a rough patch with anybody else.”

Regardless of having different romantic partners now, the MTV celebrities, who became close during The Challenge production, have opted to jointly raise their child named Ryder.

“Our biggest thing since day one of Cory coming into Ryder’s life was what kind of dad he wanted to be and what kind of parent he wanted to be,” Cheyenne explained to TopMob News in March 2020. “I wasn’t going to allow him to be a Disneyland dad or an Instagram dad or just in the moment. He had to be 100 percent. I think from the beginning, he saw my mindset and appreciated it so that’s why we co-parent so well.”

Following the end of their romance in 2018, they chose to rekindle their relationship. It was during Cheyenne’s 28th birthday celebration when she announced on Instagram that they had reconciled. In May 2021, they were blessed with their first child, a son named Ace, and got married in September 2022.

Cheyenne shared with TopMob News in 2024 that over the past two years, they’ve been crossing items off their bucket list. One of the things on their list was having a baby, and they were able to achieve that with Ace. Another item on their list was getting married, which they did by having their wedding. Lastly, they wanted to buy a house, and they successfully completed that goal as well.

And now, she continued, “I don’t want to do anything. I don’t want to set a goal. I want to sit down. I want to be really still. My goal is to be still and just to be happy with where we’re at. And just to like each other. That’s it. I want nothing else.”

Connecting while filming Ex on the Beach may not sound like the start of a love story, but several years and two kids—daughters Mila and Maya—later, Cory and Are You the One? alum Taylor Selfridge are still making waves.

“We just bought a house,” he shared with TopMob News in 2023, before bringing up that, yes, he’s aware that people want to know when they’re getting married. “It’s definitely being talked about. We have everything but the ring and me just letting her know. Taylor deserves that and it’s something that I want and she wants. Right now we’re just taking steps to get there.”

After getting married in May 2017, Ryan entered rehab not long afterwards, with his wife Mackenzie Standifer giving birth to their first son Jagger in 2018 while he was still receiving treatment.

Though the pair would welcome daughter Stella in January 2020, Mackenzie filed for divorce three years later. Ryan is now engaged to Amanda Conner, who’s expecting their first child together.

Despite their turbulent relationship that culminated in a permanent split in 2013, they have been successfully raising their teenage daughter Leah ever since.

“We have fun together but at a distance,” Amber told TopMob News in January 2022. “But our relationship is good. It’s a family now so we treat it as a family more than anything else.”

It’s true that families can have disagreements at times. However, in the last few years, it seems that Amber and Gary may not be on the best terms, as indicated by her frequent posts on social media suggesting a strained relationship between them.

After a number of years together, Amber and Matt Baier, who moved to Boston, ended their engagement in 2017, following a proposal and an unsuccessful attempt at Marriage Boot Camp.

In an interview on Dr. Drew Pinsky’s podcast that year, Amber confessed, “At some point, I found myself not caring about our relationship as much as I should have. It seemed like a wall went up between us, protecting me from getting hurt again.

While filming “Marriage Boot Camp,” Amber developed a connection with crew member Andrew Glennon on set. This budding romance blossomed into a relationship that made its public debut at the 2017 MTV Movie Awards. In May of 2018, they welcomed their first child, named James.

But the couple separated not long after Amber was arrested for domestic battery in July 2019. And after a contentious court battle, California native Andrew was awarded sole legal and primary physical custody of their son in 2022.

“I’ve worked so hard to better myself and improve my relationships with my children,” the Teen Mom star told TopMob News at the time. “While I’ve always been candid about my past substance abuse and struggles with mental illness, a person should have the chance to redeem themselves and not be tethered to their problems from the past.”

Determined not to give up, she added, “If your road has not been perfect, but you’ve worked hard to become a better, more stable and caring person today, keep moving forward as I will. I’ll never stop fighting for my children who I love more than anything.”

After encountering Amber online, Dimitri Garcia first appeared on the reality series “Teen Mom OG” in April 2020. As Amber explained on the show, “Dimitri is from Belgium and he’s 39, which means he’s a decade older than me. But he’s quite attractive.” The two gradually became closer and eventually decided to meet in person because they both felt an attraction towards each other.

In April 2021, Amber revealed on the Teen Mom OG reunion special that she was still dating Dimitri. “We’ve known each other now for 18 months,” she explained. “But I haven’t seen him in a year though.” Though the pair never officially announced a split, Amber introduced new flame Gary Wayt during a June 2024 episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter.

After Amber linked up with Gary 2.0 on a dating app in the autumn of 2023, he made an appearance in the photo when she presented him to her fellow cast members from ‘Teen Mom’ during a video call.

Though he proposed in May 2024, their betrothal was short-lived. While in North Carolina for her brother’s wedding that June, Gary ran off after the pair had a fight, leading Amber to report him as missing.

And while Gary was soon located, the duo’s engagment wasn’t the only thing left broken.

Amber shared, on Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, that she spent three to four days believing her fiancé was deceased. She expressed the struggle of mourning him and attempting to comprehend the senseless act that led to this situation. Currently, she’s enduring a difficult time in her life.

I was solid and secure, but this man has shattered me,” I admitted. “It’s been years since I felt unbalanced, and it’s all because he placed a ring on my finger.

Several months following the birth of their daughter Emilee in April 2015, Gary and Kristina Anderson got married in a charming beach wedding ceremony.

In his 2022 Instagram post, Gary expressed, “You have one of the kindest and most radiant spirits I’ve encountered. I can’t imagine my journey without your presence.

The father of Farrah Abraham‘s daughter Sophia died in an accident two months prior to her birth in December 2008.

For her first serious relationship since the death of her high school boyfriend, Farrah dated real estate agent Simon Saran on and off for over two years.

Despite the acrimonious nature of their split in 2017, they attempted to maintain some semblance of friendship, albeit with difficulty.

“I have no hard feelings against Farrah,” Simon told TopMob News at the time. “We are just from two different worlds. She likes the fake life, I want what’s real. I wish the best for her and much success in all of her future endeavors.”

Jenelle Evans and Andrew Lewis, who are Jace’s parents, separated soon after his birth in 2009. Regrettably, Jenelle has had minimal interaction with her son since then.

Jenelle pondered over her feelings in a 2019 episode of “Teen Mom 2”. She felt sad because Jace’s father was involved, but she knew his character and didn’t want him to let down her son. She didn’t want him to reappear and then disappear again.

After a one-year marriage to Courtland Rogers, and having her second child, Kaiser, with ex-boyfriend Nathan Griffin in 2014, Jenelle wed David Eason on their North Carolina property in September 2017, eight months after they welcomed their daughter Ensley.

After a particularly rocky stretch saw David charged with a child abuse misdemeanor involving Jace (at the time, Jenelle likened it to a “smear campaign”), Jenelle revealed they had separated. “I would’ve skipped straight to divorce but I couldn’t because in the state of North Carolina, you have to be legally separated for a year,” she explained on social media, “and you have to prove you have two separate addresses.”

Remember the charmer who asked then-girlfriend Chelsea Houska when he could “sign the papers over for that mistake”?

Completely in the rearview.

Against all odds, the Teen Mom star-turned-HGTV personality has a somewhat copacetic relationship with her high school ex Adam Lind, mom to her eldest daughter Aubree. “There’s no bad vibes and it’s just a very open relationship,” she told Us Weekly. “There’s no bad feelings. We see him sometimes and it’s totally fine.”

What began as a meet-cute at a gas station in 2014 became forever when Chelsea and Cole DeBoer wed in October 2016. After welcoming son Watson in 2017 and daughters Layne and Walker in 2018 and 2021, respectively, the pair launched a new joint project: Their HGTV series Down Home Fab.

“If we were going to come back to TV, I wanted it to be something lighthearted, feel good and be able to show our authentic selves,” Chelsea explained to TopMob News, sharing why this move felt “so right.” As she put it, “This was just such a cool opportunity to do that.”

Though then-high schooler Leah Messer and Corey Simms fought to turn their friendship into a forever family, the parents to now-teenage twins Aleeah and Aliannah filed for divorce six months after their October 2010 wedding.

Corey has been married to Miranda Patterson since 2013.

In 2012, Leah got married to Jeremy Calvert. The following year, they were blessed with a daughter named Adalynn.

Though they split in 2015, they have made an effort to co-parent their daughter with sometimes mixed results. “I’m looking at a complete, better version of myself,” Leah told TopMob News of her girls. “And seeing everything that they love and enjoy doing, and being able to support them in their lives and be a part of it is magical. I love it. I love being a mom, especially a girl mama.”

By the year 2021, when Leah made it public on Instagram that she was in a relationship with Jaylan Mobley, he had already won over not only Leah but also her children, as he had already endeared himself to them.

The couple announced their engagement in August 2022, but broke up that October.

A year after the breakup, the “Teen Mom” celebrity admitted candidly to TopMob News that she really needed it. She’s discovered a lot from her previous split and is now optimistic about her future, feeling like a new chapter in her life is starting.

Kailyn Lowry had her first child, Isaac, with her high school sweetheart Jo Rivera when she was only 17 years old back in the year 2010.

And though they split a year later, they’ve since settled into a comfortable co-parenting arrangement, Kailyn even hosting her now-canceled Baby Mamas No Drama podcast with Jo’s wife Vee Torres. “We’ve come a long way since we were 18,” Kailyn wrote on X after attending Jo and Vee’s 2018 wedding. “I couldn’t ask for a better stepmom for isaac.”

In November 2013, Kailyn’s second child, Lincoln, became part of the team. This was about a year after Kailyn, who was then a prominent figure on Teen Mom 2, married his father, Javi Marroquin.

Since parting ways in late 2016, Javi and his fiancée Lauren Comeau, who share a son named Eli, announced in December 2023 that they were going to have another child – this time a baby girl.

As a lifestyle enthusiast, I’ve had the pleasure of observing Kailyn Lowry’s journey, and I must say, her life has been quite dynamic. She’s blessed with two beautiful sons, Lux and Creed, whom she welcomed in the midst of an on-again, off-again relationship with Chris Lopez. However, after much ups and downs, they’ve decided to part ways permanently.

“Right now, we don’t communicate at all,” she revealed to TopMob News in 2020. “I’m hoping that it will get better with time but I don’t have a big vision. I don’t have anything negative to say. I hope for our kids that everything works itself out in whatever direction that may be.”

With current partner Elijah Scott, Kailyn finally feels she has a strong foundation. “It’s been very different from my other partners and my kids’ other dads,” she told People of Elijah, dad to her son Rio and twins Verse and Valley. “He pours concrete, he gets down and dirty at work. But he’s also just a real family man. He’s very, very much connected with his own family, with our family, and so he’s been a really good partner to me, and I feel like it’s a really good match.”

A strong enough one that she finally said yes to one of his many proposals, in fact.

“He asked me to marry him several times and I never said no,” Kailyn insisted to TopMob News in September 2024 of her neighbor-turned-life partner. “I was just like, ‘Yes, but not right now.'”

And though she acknowledged that the construction worker “definitely changed my stance on marriage,” she’s not exactly rushing out to buy a white dress. Joked Kailyn, “How soon we get married depends on the day that you ask me now.”

Despite experiencing numerous highs and lows since the birth of their daughter Kloie in 2017, Indiana natives Jade Cline and Sean Austin hinted to fans in January 2022 that they were seeing better days.

She shared that significant events occurred in our lives and substantial enhancements in Sean’s life too, as well as his future. I’m incredibly proud of him and where we find ourselves now. Eight months later, this wonderful couple revealed their engagement, exchanging vows in October 2023.

2024, I confided in TopMob News, “There’s no denying our bond isn’t flawless all the time. However, the depth of our affection transcends any imperfections. We find ways to keep the connection alive.

California natives Ashley Jones and Bar Smith privately wed in 2021—four years after they welcomed daughter Holly.

But after calling off their romance several times, Ashley officially filed for divorce in 2024.

Following the passage of several years since Briana DeJesus from “16 and Pregnant” and Devoin Austin II became parents to Nova in 2011, I found myself contemplating whether to rekindle our past relationship.

Currently, as of 2024, Briana shared with TopMob News that she is seeking a mature partner, rather than someone who resembles the young men she has dated in the past.

Following her appearance on the one season of ‘Teen Mom 3’, Briana became a part of ‘Teen Mom 2’ in its eighth series, and welcomed her second daughter, Stella, with ex-partner Luis Miguel, on July 2017.

Ever since then, Luis’ participation has been quite inconsistent, at most. As Briana shared with Dr. Drew in a December 2019 episode of Teen Mom 2, she believes he desires a family with her. Since she is not providing that to him, he seems to want nothing to do with her altogether.

2025-03-17 00:28

I Didn’t Get Fired—Here’s Why I Quit ‘Teen Mom’ for Good!

Read More