Those who appear on reality TV are used to being judged and criticized for the things they do, given that their lives are packages as entertainment for the masses. For reality TV star Kailyn Lowry, however, the most challenging aspect of starring in Teen Mom was being judged for things that didn’t actually even happen. During an appearance on former Vanderpump Rules star Lala Kent’s Give Them Lala podcast, Kailyn spoke about how some moments on the show were edited or manufactured.
Some of the dramatic things that happened weren’t happening in real time.
On the podcast, the Teen Mom 2 alum, who appeared on the show from 2011 to 2022, explained some of the strategies that were used to make the show more interesting for viewers. Sometimes, she said, something “outrageous” might happen when producers weren’t around, so they would recreate that moment later.
“If you weren’t there for huge moments, they had us wearing wigs, or they’d have us like change our phone number contacts to a producer that was on set,” Kailyn explained to Lala. “So, for example, if my ex texted me something outrageous and they weren’t there for the real moment, they would have me change my producer’s name in my phone to be my ex’s.”
From there, the producer would send Kailyn “a similar text” in order to get “an onscreen reaction.”
“We called them pickups, and they were not in real time,” Kailyn added.
She understands why they did this.
Kailyn went on to say that she gets why the reality show’s producers did things like this. After all, they had to make the show entertaining. But Kailyn felt that it “was very hard to do as a young adult.”
“It was really hard as like a young adult and a teenager to go through those sorts of things because then we’re being ripped to shreds for something that didn’t necessarily even happen that way,” Kailyn said on the podcast.
As she got older, she ‘started to push back.’
The reality show was like this throughout the whole time she was on it, but as she got older, she started to tolerate it less. When she first started out on the show, Kailyn could be “manipulated” and would “give them what they want without having a say.”
However, later on, she “started to push back.”
“I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I know how this is gonna be edited, I know what this is gonna look like after the fact, I know how people are gonna perceive this, I know that they have to edit down six months of content to four minutes per episode,'” Kailyn said. “So I started to push back because I was like, ‘This is not how I want this to be shown. I want it to be shown bigger picture.'”
Previously, Kailyn revealed why she left the show.
In 2024, Kailyn spoke about her departure from the show while on the Just Trish podcast with Trisha Paytas. She explained that she had been thinking about leaving the show for some time, but her 2022 surprise pregnancy was what pushed her to do so.
The pregnancy was unplanned and “a lot for one person,” she said. “I left in 2022 when I got pregnant with my fifth son because I was like, ‘I can’t, we’re not doing this,'” Kailyn said at the time. Kailyn and her then-boyfriend Elijah Scott quietly welcomed son Rio in November 2022. They kept the pregnancy and birth out of the public eye for a while, with Kailyn confirming Rio’s arrival in October 2023.
