Kailyn Lowry and Jo Rivera are supporting son Elliot amid his personal chapter.
After the couple’s 15-year-old—who previously went by Isaac before deciding Elliot, his middle name, feels more like him—came out as gay during a two-part series on the Teen Mom alum’s Barely Famous podcast, Kailyn and Jo had a “good conversation.”
“He said that he listened to the episodes,” Kailyn explained to Parade in an interview published June 18. “He was really proud of Elliott, and he said that he was happy.”
And Kailyn—also mom to Lincoln, 11 with ex Javi Marroquin, Lux, 7 and Creed, 4, with ex Chris Lopez, Rio, 2, and twins Verse and Valley, 20 months with fiancé Elijah Scott—said her ex was supportive of their son’s choice to come out on her podcast, specifically.
“He was perfectly fine with the questions that were being asked,” the 33-year-old explained of her son appearing on the podcast to tell his story. “He understands why Elliot wanted to do it.”
Meanwhile, Kailyn shared that Elliot feels a “sense of relief” having the episodes—which were shared June 6 and June 10—behind him, but he’s also glad he went through with it.
“He was like, ‘I just want to help one person,’” Kailyn explained. “‘If I could do that, then I feel like I did what I was supposed to do.’”
Although Elliot’s decision to come out was because photos of himself and his prom date were leaked online, he chose to speak publicly on the topic himself to assert a boundary between his public and private life.
Instagram
“It’s very important to me because, growing up on TV it’s hard to show who you really are when a camera is in front of you all the time,” he noted during the June 6 episode of Barely Famous. “It’s harder to be yourself and to be more comfortable because it’s going to be everywhere.”
As for how Kailyn feels about her son’s coming out? She says it’s really none of her concern.
“It only affects you and who you love is who you love,” Kailyn told her son during the episode. “At the end of the day, I'm not going to sever a relationship with my child based off of who he love or doesn't love.”