Amber Portwood is one of the season 1 cast members of 16 & Pregnant who continued sharing her story on the reality series Teen Mom
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In ID's Hollywood Demons: Surviving 16 & Pregnant, law enforcement discusses becoming involved in Portwood's relationship with ex Gary Shirley when instances of domestic violence aired on the show
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Portwood left Teen Mom in 2025
Amber Portwood's time on reality seriesTeen Momincluded troubling incidents of domestic violence.
In ID'sHollywood Demons: Surviving 16 & Pregnant, Portwood's time on the show is discussed, including early incidents of domestic abuse that were caught on camera while filmingTeen Mom.
In one incident, Amber choked and punched then-boyfriend Gary Shirley during an argument where she felt he disrespected her father, who was present, as well as the couple's infant daughter, Leah.
A later incident shows Amber and Gary arguing when Amber begins to hit him and even kicks him in the back as he's carrying a television down a flight of stairs. The moment wasn't just disturbing for the crew and those who packaged the show, but viewers as well.
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From a production standpoint, Dr. Drew Pinsky shares, "These shows were designed to really bring forward the struggles of pregnancy, relationships, family and, of course, raising a baby. But there was certainly tons of concern of, 'What do we do with this?' Tons of it."
Dr. Drew stresses that there were attempts to get Amber help. However, he notes, "An 18-year-old with a child isn't necessarily interested in psychotherapy."
Andrew Hanna, Chief Deputy Prosecutor for Madison County, Indiana, explains that viewers contacted different law enforcement branches. "We started to receive phone calls to the prosecutor's office, to the Anderson Police Department, the Department of Child Services, beginning the very next day [after the episode aired]," Hanna shared.
Police were given access to the raw footage from filming, at which point investigators determined there were three separate incidents of domestic violence: "Investigators watched the footage and determined there were three separate incidents of domestic violence.
"The first incident contained several instances of felony domestic battery, which rose to that standard "because of the presence of the child," Hanna explained.
The second incident was what prompted fans to phone in their concerns. A third incident had gone unaired. Documents are shown on screen indicating that Portwood allegedly "punched and kicked" Shirley in the unaired instance.
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“While the criminal investigation was underway, we addressed the domestic violence on the reunion show," Dr. Drew said. "There was a feeling that we didn't want participation in this show to cause her to go to prison, cause her to go to jail or cause her... she had enough going on where the consequences would be potentially profound. On the other hand, if this [behavior] were to continue, that has to happen.”
When police spoke with Portwood and Shirley, "Amber was defiant in terms of downplaying these incidents. She said, to a large degree, she didn't remember these instances because she had blacked out, but if they were on video, then she admitted that they must have occurred.”
Dr. Drew explained, "She said she blacked out, which could be true. That sort of experience of rage happens to dissociative people and it turns out, Amber is highly dissociative.”
Hanna noted, “She stated repeatedly that these were not in any way staged or provoked by the television show.”
Amber was sentenced to two years, which was suspended to formal probation. MTV also put in measures so that Amber had to have a security guard present whenever she and Gary were together or whenever Amber was in Leah's presence for a period of time.
Amber later violated her probation by abusing opiates and getting arrested for possession of a controlled substance. "In the courtroom she said, ‘Judge, you have to put me in jail because I'm going to kill myself if left to my own devices,' and she was right.”
Amber goes to prison for two years and gets invited back on the show afterward. Again, Dr. Drew explains: “You're doing a documentary and not wanting to interfere with somebody's life."
"But I mean, that's the question on every single difficult situation we're airing. Are we giving it sunshine and bringing it to light and showing people what this really looks like and understanding it or avoiding it? Or is it part of an entertaining story? Or both?"
Portwood — who sharesdaughter Leah, 17, withShirley, as well asson James, 7, with ex Andrew Glennon — leftTeen Momin 2025,
Hollywood Demons: Surviving 16 & Pregnantpremieres Monday, May 18 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on ID. Episodes are available to stream on HBO Max.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go tothehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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