Teen Mom Confidential: Secrets & Scandals From MTV's Most Controversial Shows (2 page)

9
(26%) married their baby daddies

5
(56%) of those marriages ended in divorce

15
(32%) are currently together with the fathers of their babies.

BABIES

49
babies have been born

25
(51%) were girls

24
(49%) were boys

There have been 2 sets of twins

The most common baby names are Ayden and Noah, with two girls naming their babies each of those names (although they are spelled differently)

3
(9%) have chosen adoption

LEGAL TROUBLES

12
(25%) have been arrested

3
(6%) have served time in jail

3
(6%) have lost custody of their children

They began as ordinary high school girls - cheerleaders, athletes, future college students - and ended up as the most famous moms in America. With nearly seven percent of all girls between 15 and 19 becoming pregnant in 2008, MTV casting directors had no shortage of underage baby bumpers to choose from for their groundbreaking new docu-series,
16 and Pregnant
.

Season one premiered to over two million viewers on June 11, 2009 and featured just six one-hour episodes. Each storyline was more gripping than the next: unsupportive families, the painful choice to give up a child for adoption, the tragic death of a loved one. These stories are “ones you treat with kid gloves,” former executive producer
Liz Gateley
told the
New York Post
. “There are moments that you have to turn the cameras off and you have to comfort them.”

Ultimately, four of the girls –
Farrah Abraham
,
Maci Bookout
,
Amber Portwood
and
Catelynn Lowell
- were selected to continue documenting their journeys on the spinoff,
Teen Mom
, in 2009.

AMBER PORTWOOD
(b. May 14, 1990)

The hot-tempered Hoosier had been dating
Gary Shirley
for more than two years when she became pregnant with daughter
Leah
(b. November 12, 2008). They planned to marry, but the relationship quickly turned violent. During season one of
Teen Mom
, Amber was caught on camera trying to choke Gary after he insulted her father. Weeks later, cameras rolled again as she punched and kicked him in front of their daughter. Amber was charged with two felony counts of domestic battery and spent one night in jail. Gary was eventually granted custody of Leah as Amber's personal and legal woes mounted.

FARRAH ABRAHAM
(b. May 31, 1991)

Life for the aspiring model and actress from Council Bluffs, Iowa changed overnight when boyfriend
Derek Underwood
was killed in a December 2008 car wreck. Derek, Farrah has maintained, was the first and only love of her life - though she revealed in a 2012 autobiography that he was unaware he was the father of her daughter
Sophia
(b. February 23, 2009). Despite his paternity, Farrah refused to allow Derek's family to see the baby for years, prompting a lawsuit from his mother. In January 2010, things also got complicated at home, when Farrah's own mother,
Debra Danielson
, was charged with assaulting her. “That was, like, the lowest point with my family,” Farrah revealed during a
Teen Mom
after show interview.

CATELYNN LOWELL
(b. March 12, 1992)

The high school senior from Algonac, Michigan - and her boyfriend
Tyler Baltierra
- struggled for months with their decision to give daughter
Carolynn “Carly” Elizabeth
(b. May 18, 2009) up for adoption. The couple paid tribute to their baby by each getting tattoos bearing her name. Catelynn and Tyler have been together since the seventh grade and plan to marry on their ninth anniversary on July 15, 2013 - even though he is already her stepbrother. (Tyler's father
Darl “Butch” Baltierra
, a mullet-sporting, recovering drug addict who is in and out of jail, married Catelynn's mother
April
after their kids started dating). Just 16 when she became pregnant, Catelynn told
MTV.com
she understood what birth control was, but never knew how to get it and was afraid of everyone knowing she was sexually active.

MACI BOOKOUT
(b. August 10, 1991)

A popular, outgoing softball player, Maci had dreams of going away to college and becoming a broadcast journalist. Then she got pregnant. Suddenly, she was enrolled in courses at the local community college - and struggling to take care of newborn son Bentley (b. October 27, 2008) without much help from baby daddy Ryan Edwards. The couple lived together briefly and even considered marriage, but their tumultuous relationship eventually imploded. The fight over custody and visitation with Bentley became even more strained when Maci began dating former childhood pal Kyle King, who is four years her senior.

Teen Mom 2
, which premiered January 11, 2011, introduced a new crop of girls with even more legal woes and daddy dramas:

LEAH MESSER
(b. April 24, 1992)