‘Teen Mom’ Star Amber Portwood Clears Confusion Over Relationship With Boyfriend Dimitri

Teen Mom OG star Amber Portwood is still dating her Belgian boyfriend, Dimitri Garcia, the MTV star said Thursday. During Tuesday’s episode, Portwood tried to turn down the temperature on their relationship after Garcia started texting and calling her non-stop. The two have not seen each other in almost a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Portwood insisted they are still together.

“It’s been 11 months since I’ve seen him, but we do talk,” Portwood, 30, told InTouch Weekly. “I call it ‘COVID dating’ because it’s over the phone, you know what I mean? So I’m not going out and dating guys. I’m not doing anything like that.” Portwood and Garcia met online and have been dating for two years, following Portwood’s breakup with Andrew Glennon. Portwood shares 12-year-old daughter Leah with Gary Shirley and 2-year-old son James with Glennon. Garcia, who lives in Belgium, also has two children from a previous relationship.

Portwood also defended online dating, telling InTouch she was “over” reading criticism. “As if I’m some weirdo that if somebody pops up in my DMs, I’m just like, yeah, let’s get this going,” she said. “If that was the case, I would have freakin’ 3,000 guys a day, but anyway. I mean, seriously.” She found Garcia “very sweet, honest and genuine,” which is why she started communicating with him. He “took the lie detector test and passed it,” she said.

During Tuesday’s episode of Teen Mom OG, Portwood opened up about her relationship with Garcia during a Zoom call with the other Teen Mom OG stars. Portwood said she was still with Garcia but had some reservations because “he’s very possessive and jealous because he’s not here.” Co-star Catelynn Lowell reminded Portwood that “keeping those boundaries is important to you.”

Later on, she had a discussion with an MTV producer, telling him that Garcia was calling “nonstop.” She had been in “controlling relationships” before and Garcia was constantly asking her what she was doing. In one scene, Garcia called her using WhatsApp to ask what she was doing and she was simply walking around outside. “There’s times where I feel like it’s getting a little much,” Portwood told him, notes PEOPLE. “It’s turning into a very possessive situation and a very not healthy situation. To be questioned by somebody so much at a time like this is just something that is not needed for me whatsoever when I’m dating.” In the end, Portwood decided she needed to take a step back on their relationship. She even told Shirley she was no longer Garcia’s girlfriend. Teen Mom OG airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.