Amber Portwood's Terse Response to an Honest Text from Daughter Leah Shocks Teen Mom Cast and Fans

Amber Portwood is struggling to make peace with her daughter's decision about their relationship.

The season finale episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter begins with a conversation between Amber and her mom Tonya in the car, where her mom encourages her to focus on bettering herself when Amber says she doesn't feel she needs a relationship with her daughter Leah at the moment.

"That's really all you can do," Tonya says, "Because apparently trying to get Leah to accept or approve you again, it's not working."

"She can come over," Amber says.

"She's driving now," Tonya replies, to which Amber says, "Exactly. That's why I meant. She can come over."

At Gary's home, Leah explains to him and Kristina that she wants to send Amber a text that clarifies where they stand. Leah explains she feels uncomfortable and wants to set the record straight after seeing Amber's comments about Gary and her on a TikTok live.

"I have a text ready that I want to send to Amber and get it over with," Leah tells them. In a confessional, she explains, "Obviously, for the past few years, I've been feeling a certain way. But the last straw was when she was doing her lives online. To say what she said...she was even talking about me some. I, personally, can't handle it."

Gary advises Leah that she's free to do that if she wants to. "I know I want to do it," she replies, as the concerned father explains his stance.

"I can't have my hand in this, other than being supportive for you," says Gary. "It has to come from you and [be] something you want. So I'm going to make sure, you know? Because it's hard to go back from this."

"It'll be fi

ne," Leah says. Gary reiterates she should be sure. Leah invites Kristina to come upstairs with her for the moment."You just need to make sure it's something you want to do and it sounds like it is...I love you and I encourage you. Stay strong and do whatever you've gotta do."

Talking to Kristina, Leah says she "want to move forward and not have abandonment issues." Kristina asks what the text entails and Leah reads it to her.

"This isn't mean to hurt you 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. I feel like recent online activities have put me in a place where I need to communicate this to put a boundary between us for myself," Leah reads. She tells Kristina, "I just wanted to keep it short and not go off or anything, because I feel like that's just kind of immature."

Acknowledging Amber, Kristina notes, "I'm sure she's going to feel a certain kind of way being rejected." She then continues to support Leah, saying, "Maybe this will give you the closure you need and be able to end that chapter and the next one can be the Leah chapter."

Leah acknowledges she's "scared," but sends the message. In a confessional, Leah says, "I would say I have a hard time forgiving and forgetting and stuff like that. The best way for me to forgive her would be me moving on, but I'm really glad that I made my own move to actually push forward for myself and what I want, so I just hope that she's finding a way to accept it."

Cameras catch up with Amber later as she receives it. "Why is Leah messaging me?" she asks the producer she's working with. Amber reads the message and explains it to the producer, taking a minute to process before beginning to go off about Gary.

"And then you have this other piece of s---, nasty man, this is the s--- that [I] get from my daughter that I love so much and I can't even give her it?" Amber began.

"I can't take her out on little dates like I did with my son. I couldn't take her out to go shopping, I couldn't take her out to f--king eat alone," she continued. "Gary said I had to go over there, you nasty prick."

Then, she addressed her daughter. "And Leah? Stop. You're 16. Stop!" She looked right into the camera before continuing, saying, "People see the disrespect, by the way, and they tell me how much you disrespect me too, stop!"

"You're rude. There's no reason to be rude. You do not know what you are saying right now," she continued. "You're young, be young. Be 16. Be 16 and do not be in the middle of me and your father!"

Several Teen Mom castmates reacted to the intense scene. Mackenzie Douthit answered an Instagram Q&A question on the moment by writing, "I'm not gonna lie, I stopped and said a prayer that Leah would never see that."

On her Snapchat, Cheyenne Floyd Davis posted the scene with mind-blown emojis, while Jade Cline made mention of it in her episode recap.

"The way she looked into that camera and started basically going off on her own child that is saying, 'Hey, it's me. I'm the one making this choice because you're doing things that are, they're hurting me and I'm a 16 year old and I'm having a hard time processing and dealing with it,'" she began.

Jade says Amber maintains a "victim mentality" and says, "It's okay to be accountable and make mistakes."

"I think that's what kids look for, is someone to apologize and say they f---ed up and then actively start doing things to show, 'Hey, I'm being better, I'm trying to be better. I'm doing things differently for you.' I think that's essentially what Leah has been looking for and hasn't been getting it and she's over it."

Leah Messer was asked about it on her Instagram Live and said, "I think when it comes to that… it's none of my business. I don't want to get into other people's family dynamics and their challenges. But I just really feel like, no matter what the children, the kids, they have to be put first, and I couldn't imagine — we just got to set ourselves aside and make it less about you and most about the children involved," she shared.

Neither Portwood nor MTV have commented on her claims that she's quit the show for her mental health.