Tyler Baltierra and Catelynn Lowell have opted against listening to their biological daughter Carly’s original song.
“We never chose not to listen to the song. We were actually super excited, very touched and couldn’t wait to hear it,” Tyler, 33, wrote via Instagram on Thursday, May 22. “But, this was all thrown onto us out of nowhere with MTV’s setup. … This was all MTV’s idea since their producers were the only ones that our biological daughter’s parents were willing to speak with about all of this.”
He added, “Their original plan was to have MTV film them and their family, as long as MTV didn’t have them talk about the adoption while filming. MTV didn’t think it made sense, so they compromised behind the scenes with this song idea.”
In Thursday’s episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, Dr. Drew Pinsky told Tyler and Catelynn, 33, that he had a video of Carly singing from her parents, Brandon and Teresa Davis, who adopted her in 2009. The MTV stars said that they did not want to hear the footage while filming the show.
“[This was] the first time Cate ever heard her sing prior to this, became a very emotionally intense day. So recognizing this and wanting to prepare ourselves, all we asked was to first give us a moment to listen in private,” Tyler added. “That way we could collect/process ourselves a bit, and then we could listen and play it on camera afterwards, like they wanted.”
During Thursday’s episode, MTV alleged that when Catelynn asked for the link to hear the performance in private, Brandon and Teresa denied the request. (Us Weekly has reached out for comment.)
“It was truly heartbreaking to have something so special just dangled in front of us, to then have it ripped away like that,” Tyler said. “Navigating an open adoption as a birth parent is so difficult, especially with such a constant, imbalanced power dynamic. Birth parents are always at the mercy of the adopters (which is understandable, since we’re the ones who relinquished our baby to them), but that still doesn’t make it any less hard or painful.”
Tyler further noted that he and Catelynn were touched by Brandon and Teresa’s offer.
