'16 & Pregnant' Star's Life After Reality TV Revealed
Not every mom who appeared in an episode of 16 & Pregnant continued working with MTV on the Teen Mom franchise. Jennifer Del Rio, 29, is one of those mothers. More than a decade after her episode aired, Del Rio leads a peaceful life on a Florida farm, where she runs a goat milk soap business. She lives with her husband, Luis Gutierrez, and her four children, and is happy to have her MTV days long behind her.
Del Rio's 16 & Pregnant episode aired back in 2011. In that explosive hour, cameras caught her altercation with then-fiance Josh Smith, who was arrested in the end. Del Rio welcomed twin boys, Joshua Devan Jr. and Noah Matthew Smith, on Oct. 11, 2010. The last time Del Rio appeared on TMZ was back in 2012 when she filed for sole custody of their twins.
Today, Del Rio lives in Florida, where she and Gutierrez run Southern Bay Farm. They bought the property in 2017 after one of her twins asked for a goat for his birthday, Del Rio told The U.S. Sun in March. At the time, the farm was overgrown with weeds and trees. After preparing the land, they opened the soap business in 2018. Del Rio and Gutierrez also share a son, Sebastian, 9, and a daughter, Annabella, 5.
Del Rio makes the all-natural products herself. She was inspired to make them because one of her sons was diagnosed with eczema. She spends about $2,000 every month and even opened a retail store in a Tampa mall. Her next big plan is to sell her products at an all-women-owned store this spring.
Her life hasn't been without its challenges. Del Rio was fully diagnosed with lupus in 2022, although she has had symptoms since she was a teenager. She almost lost her son during her second pregnancy because of lupus complications. Del Rio also had a breast cancer scare.
While Del Rio was on 16 & Pregnant, MTV began filming Teen Mom OG. "My dad and my mom were like: 'Hey, you know this could be a bigger opportunity for you,'" Del Rio told The Sun. "But I'm thankful that it didn't happen. I think the universe knew what it was doing."
Del Rio is "not a huge fan" of Teen Mom, although she did keep in contact with some of the stars for a while. She also didn't care for how Dr. Drew Pinsky tried to make her just another statistic during a reunion. "They didn't show it on TV, but he kept saying, 'You know you're going to be pregnant in a year because of these statistics,'" Del Rio recalled. "I'm not that girl... I was not going to be another number."
After she filmed her episode, Del Rio moved from Florida to Illinois with her twins. She got her GED and attended college. She worked as a correction officer when she moved back to Florida before she bought her farm. Her relationship with Smith also improved, and their sons remain in contact with their father.
"I wanted full custody because I wanted to know my children were safe with me, not because I wanted [Smith] out of the picture," Del Rio told The Sun. "The door is always open to having a relationship [with the twins], but if you mess that up, that's on you."
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