REALITY TVAmber Portwood's Daughter Leah Shirley Blasts Her in Unearthed Text: 'It's Been My Decision to Not Have a Relationship With You'
Amber Portwood's daughter, Leah Shirley, blasted her in an unearthed text message.
Amber Portwood’s daughter, Leah Shirley, is finally reaching out to her — but it’s likely not the message Portwood was hoping to receive.
Leah Shirley said 'recent online activities' made her put up a boundary between her and her mother.
“This isn’t meant to hurt you,” Shirley texts her mother in an upcoming episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, “but I want to let you know that all these years it’s been my decision to not have a relationship with you and nobody has influenced my decision.”
Shirley notes “recent online activities” have put her in a place where she need to “communicate this” in order to put a boundary up between her and Portwood.
The text message comes on the heels of Shirley opening up about her relationship with her estranged mother to Catelynn Lowell and Maci Bookout on the May 1 episode of the show.
Leah Shirley recently claimed her mother hadn't seen her in nine months.
Shirley told Lowell and Bookout she was “done” with wanting a relationship with Portwood due to her being an inconsistent presence in her life and for how she’s blamed her dad, Gary Shirley, for their troubled relationship. She also shared she hadn’t seen Amber in nine months and, aside from when Amber reached out after Leah was diagnosed with asthma, Amber hadn’t attempted to contact her whatsoever.
“Me and Maci have told her if she wanted to ever have a relationship with you that she needed to start showing consistency,” Catelynn told Leah, acknowledging that, while she and Maci are friends with Amber, they’re aware of her issues in terms of being a parent.
Leah noted it’s “too much” to have Amber come in and out of her life and, when appearing, act like “everything’s perfect.”
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Leah Shirley insisted Gary Shirley is not to blame for her estranged relationship with Amber Portwood.
“She tells me that she loves me and hugs me and stuff and I can’t do that,” Leah elaborated, calling it “fake.” “Like, you don’t text me, you don’t see me, and then when you do see me – for purposes of there being a camera in your face – you try to act like you’re the best mom ever.”
She added she “doesn’t hate” her mother, but is dealing with her “own issues.”
She said Gary has consistently pushed for Leah to have a relationship with Amber, even pressing Leah to invite her to her birthday party — but Amber didn't end up coming.
Leah Shirley has been vocal about wanting Gary Shirley's wife, Kristina Shirley, to adopt her.
Catelynn told Leah it was “huge” to see her “setting boundaries” to “protect” her own “mental health and peace” at such a young age.
Aside from claiming on a TikTok Live she had been pushed out of Leah’s life, Amber went so far as to accuse Gary of sexual assault on the platform in December 2024.
“You’re a rapist,” she shared at the time on a TikTok Live. “You’re lucky that you have our daughter. And if you want to come at me for this, because I’ve never told anybody. Not once. I’ve never told anybody…You guys, I’ve kept my mouth shut for 17 years. I went through everything that I went through everything that I could to keep this at bay. Even though other people knew about this, okay?”
Teen Mom: The Next Chapter is currently airing on MTV on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET.
