Leah Shirley Opens Up to Catelynn Lowell About Her Strained Relationship with Mom Amber Portwood: “It’s Not Fair to Blame My Dad”

In a preview from Thursday’s episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, Leah Shirley– daughter of Amber Portwood and ex Gary Shirley– opens up to Catelynn Lowell about her complicated relationship with Amber, revealing that she’s “done” with Amber’s lack of consistency and Amber’s habit of blaming Gary for their estrangement. 

In the clip, Leah confirms to Cate and Maci Bookout that she hasn’t seen Amber in about nine months and that, aside from reaching out once after finding out that Leah had been diagnosed with asthma, Amber hasn’t attempted to make contact with the 16 year-old. While Cate tells Leah that she and Maci are friends with Amber, she also acknowledges Amber’s shortcomings as a parent. 

“Me and Maci have told her if she wanted to ever have a relationship with you that she needed to start showing consistency,” Cate says, to which Leah replies, “I’m just, like, done.” 

Leah goes on to explain that it’s “too much” on her to have Amber coming into her life sporadically, only to act like “everything’s perfect.” 

“She tells me that she loves me and hugs me and stuff and I can’t do that,” Leah explains. “ … It’s 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.” 

Leah says that while she doesn’t “hate” Amber and understands that she “has her own issues,” she “just can’t handle it myself.” Leah also clarifies that while Amber may claim that Gary is to blame for the status of their relationship, that isn’t the case at all.

“ … I think that she thinks it’s my dad’s fault, so I kind of want to clear that up because it’s not fair for her to blame my dad for something that I want,” Leah says.

Leah notes that her dad has always pushed for her to have a relationship with Amber, even encouraging her to invite her mom to celebrate her most recent birthday, which Amber “didn’t bother” to attend. When asked if Amber being a no-show to her party hurt her feelings, Leah tells Cate it didn’t, as she’s used to this sort of behavior from Amber. 

While discussing the topic of complicated mother-daughter relationships, Cate tells Leah that it took her well into adulthood to get to a place where she finally enforced boundaries with her mom, April Baltierra, and she commends Leah for being able to do that with Amber at such a young age. 

“ … to see you, at your age, making those boundaries to protect your own mental health and your peace, that’s huge,” Cate says. 

As Cate continues discussing her situation with April, she confesses to Leah that she doesn’t think the relationship between her and April will “ever be normal.”

“That’s how I feel, too,” Leah says of her relationship with Amber. 

Cate goes on to point out that Leah is “doing hard work”– even if she doesn’t realize it– and tells the teen she’s proud of her. 

As The Ashley previously told you, Amber flipped off Cate and Maci on TikTok Live back in March after a fan in the chat pointed out that Cate and Maci have always stuck by Amber’s side, unlike some of her other ‘Teen Mom’ co-stars. While Amber later apologized for issuing the double-bird insult to her two ‘Teen Mom’ pals, Cate revealed at the time that Amber would have even more to be upset about as this season of ‘Teen Mom: The Next Chapter’ continued, presumably referring to the conversation set to air during Thursday’s episode.  

“Woahhh lol 😂 well I guess she’s gonna be big mad when she sees what me and Maci said to Leah later this season,” Cate commented. “Truth will always be truth and facts are facts!” 

New episodes of ‘Teen Mom: The Next Chapter’ air Thursdays on MTV.