Reality TV News
Amber Portwood took to TikTok to blame MTV for her broken relationship with her older daughter, Leah Shirley.
Amber Portwood insists she walked away from reality TV, but the troubled Indiana native has not walked away from public life. In lieu of filming with MTV, Portwood is using TikTok to get her message across and keep her followers informed. Without the keen eye of an editor, she’s made some lofty and easily invalidated claims. She’s taken aim at MTV, accused her ex-fiancé of abuse, and lambasted her former costars. In her latest TikTok meltdown, Amber Potwood accused the network of manufacturing drama between her and her teenage daughter, Leah Shirley. She says the network made Leah send her the “disgusting” text seen in the season finale.
Amber Portwood suggests MTV alienated her from her child
Amber Potwood’s custody record has been spotty at best. She lost custody of her eldest child when she was just a toddler. She has bounced in and out of her life ever since. The nature of their tense and often distant relationship has been documented on Teen Mom OG and Teen Mom: The Next Chapter. Now that the network no longer employs Portwood, she’s claiming they’ve had a hand in the estrangement.
In her most recent TikTok Live event, Amber Portwood claims that MTV made her daughter send her the “disgusting” text message. Fans saw the message during a season finale. The “disgusting” message Amber is referring to was simply a text in which Leah carefully explained that her desire to cut contact with Amber was her own decision, made by her alone. She outlined how Amber’s recent online behavior had forced her to make the decision.
Leah’s articulate and mature message was met with rage by Amber. She lashed out at the teen in her final moments on MTV, calling her “rude” and “disrespectful.” It is unclear if Leah has had any contact with Amber since the incident, but it doesn’t seem likely. Amber’s online antics have only worsened since she left MTV.
What led to the rift between Leah and Amber?
Leah Shirley’s feelings about her mother have been on full display during the latest season of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, but the rift between the mother-daughter duo has been deepening for years. There have been several uncomfortable and downright tense moments between the pair over the years.
In more recent years, the rift between the mother and daughter grew even deeper when Leah showed an interest in being adopted by her stepmother, Kristina Shirley. She is heard calling Kristina, who married Gary Shirley in 2015, “mom” several times in recent seasons. Leah is seeing a therapist to help her work through her feelings of abandonment. The teen, from what fans can see on MTV, appears mature, well-adjusted, and perfectly capable of articulating her feelings. How much MTV manufactured the situation is debatable.
