Teen Mom star Amber Portwood's 16-year-old daughter Leah revealed why she has chosen to keep her distance after years of a strained relationship.
Amber Portwood's daughter Leah Shirley is getting candid about her decision to cut ties with her mom.
After years of navigating a difficult relationship with her mom in the public eye, the 16-year-old revealed on the May 22 season finale of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter that she is seeking to keep her distance, citing the way Amber, 34, has spoken about her as the catalyst for needing space.
"Obviously, 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," Leah explained in a confessional. "She was even talking about me some. I personally can’t handle it."
And the teen—whose dad is Gary Shirley—went on to express the sentiment to Amber.
"This isn’t meant 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,” she wrote in a text during the episode. “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.”
Although Leah was "scared" to confront Amber in this way, she noted, "the best way for me to forgive her would be me moving on."
Still, while talking through her decision with Gary and stepmom, Kristina Shirley—who share daughter Emilee, 10—they anticipated Amber would struggle with the news as Kristina noted that the 16 and Pregnant star would likely "feel a certain kind of way being rejected."
Indeed, Amber did not take the message well.
"This is the s--t that I get from my daughter that I love so much," Amber said during the episode after receiving the text on-camera with a producer before blaming Gary for the strain on their relationship. "Leah, stop. You’re 16, stop. 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."
MTVShe continued, "You do not know what you are saying right now. You’re young. Be young. Be 16. Be 16 and do not be in the middle of me and your father."
This isn't the first time that Leah has spoken out about her estranged mom in recent months.
Earlier this year, she delved into how Amber, who is also mom to son James, 6, with ex Andrew Glennon has left her with abandonment issues.
"I'm not really sure when I realized Amber, like, wasn't there," Leah reflected during the March 27 episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, "maybe somewhere around, like I was, eight to 10 years old, maybe. I don't want her around, but I do have abandonment issues from it."
Leah added, "It's just an internal feeling that I'm gonna have forever, probably."
