Teen Mom OG star Amber Portwood recently opened up about her daughter Leah’s knowledge of her past mental health issues.
While speaking exclusively to Us Weekly, Portwood revealed that she chooses not to discuss the sensitive subject with Leah, who is 9 years old.
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“Leah doesn’t really know much about my mental health,” Portwood said. “She just knows about [how] Mommy had, like, trouble in the past for drugs, and that’s kind of where we’re going to keep that until we get to a place where she really understands.”
The Teen Mom cast member went on to say, however, that she will likely have a conversation about it when the time comes.
“She’s starting to be older. She pretty much is acting like a teenager. You know, it’s like 9 going on 14, so if she starts feeling a certain way, that’s my time to open up to her, to make her feel better, to understand that she’s not alone and that I went through this too,” Portwood shared.
“She literally wants to do her own thing, so if that means she doesn’t come over on a weekend I’m supposed to have her, I go over there [to Shirley’s house] and visit her then,” Portwood also told Us Weekly previously, explaining that she tries to spend as much time with Leah as she can right now since the girl’s father — Gary Shirley — has full custody. “That’s what we’ve been doing. … We spend, I think, a lot more time together now than we did before, which is so amazing.”
“Some weekends she wants to go and spend the night with her friends or do something else. I mean, she’s a kid so I can’t really get mad at that,” the reality TV star went on to say. “But I do miss her a lot and I do explain to her that, even though she’s young, ‘Mommy still wants to see you more‘ and things like that. She understands, but she’s a kid … As long as she knows that I love her and that we spend time together … that’s really all that matters. As long as she’s happy.”
In addition to finding time to be with Leah, Portwood is also raising a 4-month-old son alongside her boyfriend Andrew Glennon.
“The way that we are when we spend time together is just, like, the best moments, I swear, of my life, especially seeing her with James,” Portwood exclaimed. “It’s amazing.”
The new season of Teen Mom OG premieres Monday, Oct. 1 at 9 p.m. ET on MTV.
