New ‘Teen Mom OG’ Star Cheyenne Floyd Responds to Casting Backlash

Cheyenne Floyd may not technically have been a teen mom, but she’s defending her casting on Teen Mom OG.

The Are You the One? and Challenge alum has faced a fair amount of backlash since rumors of her casting on the MTV show broke in June. Floyd shares 1-year-old daughter Ryder with Cory Wharton, who also appeared on The Challenge, and welcomed their daughter at 23.

It’s this age discrepancy that has had many fans questioning her being cast at all on the show, but Floyd told Us Weekly ahead of the Oct. 1 season premiere that she has much in common with the women who are also on the show at this point.

“I think that a lot of people are stuck on the word and at the end of the day I’m still young mom. I still have the same struggles and I’m still learning just like everyone else,” Floyd, 25, said. “I don’t think 23 is the ideal age to have a baby. She was unplanned, so in other ways, other than me not being a teen, I have different things that you can relate. So instead of me screaming all day long that I’m not a teen mom, I’d rather just talk about things that I am.”

A large part of her storyline will center around her co-parenting relationship with Wharton, having been in a relationship with another man at the time her MTV co-star got her pregnant. In fact, she didn’t even know he was the father until Ryder was 6 months old!

“Prior to doing Teen Mom, we kept everything to ourselves as far as what happened, so it’s going to be really interesting to see what the viewers think after they find out,” she said, adding of her relationship with Wharton, “We’re good. We’re best friends. We work together with everything and put everything into Ryder. So we have a good relationship.”

She’s also excited to have MTV viewers see her in a different way than they did on her other reality shows.

“They have a different kind review about Cory and they haven’t seen me on TV since I did The Challenge and I literally had the baby right after, so it will be interesting to see what they think about is his parents, and we’re excited to show our healthy co-parenting relationship,” she said.

Teen Mom OG returns for an all-new season on MTV Monday, Oct. 1 at 9 p.m. ET.

Photo credit: MTV