“One of my best friends in the entire world right here, she’s enjoying the day at home (E learning) I’d say she’s one lucky girl,” Gary Shirley posted on January 25. “Has 2 mom’s @realamberlportwood1__ & @kristina_shirley3 & 1 over protective papa! We are missing our little Emmy whose is on a hybrid schedule and today is one of her in school days.”
Leah and Amber Portwood’s relationship has not been very great lately, and Amber opened up about it on an episode of Teen Mom OG.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen her. She hasn’t even answered any of my text messages,” Amber told producers on the season premiere of Teen Mom OG. “She’s not going to answer my phone calls. But she has a Bonus Mom, so…ridiculous way to speak, I’m sorry.”
In a confessional, Amber later said the situation broke her heart.
“It truly breaks my heart that Leah and I are drifting apart,” she said. “For the past six years, I’ve been seeing a psychiatrist. I really think if I could go to therapy with Leah, it would bring us closer together. But Gary and Kristina feel differently.”
She added that she and Gary have discussed sending Leah to therapy, but Gary wasn’t completely sold.
“I think she’ll be happier in life when it comes to understanding a bit more of what the past was, where things happen today and how I am today and that it’s okay to have a mom that’s been through these things and you shouldn’t be ashamed of that,” Amber said to producers. “Therapy is something that needs to happen, but there’s nothing I can do about it because he does have the primary custody of her. I want my daughter back.”
Amber has previously claimed that Gary and Kristina are purposefully driving a wedge between her and her daughter, but Gary disagrees.
“I’m not gonna sit here and make Leah go somewhere because it’ll help Amber,” Gary told his wife, Kristina, during the episode. “How can I encourage Leah to do something she doesn’t wanna do, if her mom’s not doing what she needs to do?”
He added that Leah is almost a teenager, and Amber is unable to get back all the years she missed.
“Leah’s 12. She’s not gonna get back the years she missed. If there’s gonna be any kind of reuniting, it’s gonna have to be like, ‘Hey, Amber’s really dug deep and really done what she needed to do to be the mother she needs to be,’” Gary said.
“I’m trying to figure out a way to fit Leah into a situation she just doesn’t want to be in. I think she just thought that I abandoned her and I want for her to heal from this and move on,” Amber told her therapist. “I can’t take away my past. I wouldn’t be alive if I didn’t make certain decisions and Leah hates me for it and I can’t tell her that.”
Amber then broke down in tears.
“I just want her to love me again, I want her to understand that everything I did was to be alive for her. It wasn’t for anything else. I’m just gonna keep trying, just gonna keep reaching and praying.”
