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Teen Mom stars Tyler and Catelynn Baltierra have gotten a lot of criticism for the way they have handled their first daughter Carly’s adoption, and now Tyler is speaking out. He thinks that costar Ryan Edwards’ wife, Amanda Conner, is getting more sympathy from fans after she was arrested on DUI charges than Catelynn has for her adoption, and at this point, he’s had enough.
People have been talking about both Amanda and Catelynn in recent weeks.
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Teen Mom fans know that a huge part of Tyler and Catelynn’s story was placing their bio-daughter, Carly, up for adoption when she was born since they were both still teenagers at the time and didn’t feel prepared to raise a baby. What started as an open adoption has seriously devolved over the years, and Carly’s parents have asked Tyler and Catelynn to stop contacting their family. Knowing this, Catelynn got a lot of backlash for daring to publicly wish Carly a happy birthday on social media when she turned 17 last month.
Meanwhile, Amanda was arrested on May 24 after she was allegedly driving under the influence with her 15-month-old daughter, Paisley, in the car. Later, Amanda shared a TikTok video revealing that she had “relapsed,” and she’s received a decent amount of support from people who are rooting for her to get her life together.
Tyler claimed Amanda is getting a lot more sympathy than Catelynn did.
On the latest episode of the couple’s podcast Cate & Ty Break It Down, Tyler said he noticed that Amanda has been getting a lot of positive comments as she works towards recovering from her addiction — and he doesn’t necessarily believe that’s a bad thing. What he doesn’t understand is that Catelynn isn’t being treated with the same kindness online.
“It’s interesting that we’re talking about a woman in recovery who relapsed and during that relapse, put her child in danger and herself in danger,” Tyler said on the podcast, via Us Weekly. “She gets this amount of empathy and sympathy because she is struggling with this addiction problem.”
He continued, “At the same time, my wife will make a post — who is sober, a great mom — about how hard it is that she can’t see the baby she relinquished out of desperation for her birthday. The comments of that vs. this always blows my mind.”
In Tyler’s opinion, adoption is a more taboo topic.
He thinks the difference in people’s reactions just goes to show how little adoptions like Catelynn’s are accepted.
“It’s just a representation of how adoption is still in the shadows and mental health in general of adoption,” he said. “How is it possible that a woman who endangered her children because she’s a drug addict gets more sympathy and empathy over a birth mother who relinquished out of desperation, talking about missing her on her birthday?”
One could argue that these are two completely different situations that shouldn’t be compared, and obviously, both are difficult in their own way. Maybe the problem isn’t so much with how much support people are giving and to who, but more about people being kinder online over all.
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