If you watch Teen Mom and Teen Mom 2 as religiously as we do, you can tell that A LOT of the conversations filmed are staged. That doesn’t mean they’re completely made up, but that they often seem to meet together to talk about things going on in their lives (in ways they might not have done if they weren’t being filmed for a reality show,) and sometimes it seems like they are recreating certain conversations. This happens all the time in reality television, it’s not just MTV. The cameras can’t be around people 24/7, and sometimes they arrange conversations to go over things that happened off camera (or like often the case of the Real Housewives, to ignite arguments, drink throwing, and drama.)
Sometimes we think we know people based on what we see on TV, and a lot of times we do get accurate glimpses into reality stars’ lives, but the audience can’t see everything and know everything (it’s not like we have a live-feed on their lives: their stories have to be edited, and packaged into segments with other people when it’s an ensemble show.)
Tuesday night on the Teen Mom 2 finale we saw Kailyn Lowry cheat on her boyfriend Jordan Wenner with her ex (and baby Isaac’s dad) Jo Rivera, then admit she cheated to Jordan, and last of all, try to get back with Jo.
All these things really happened, but a source close to the situation tells us that what the audience saw was a recreation, even a retelling, of real events.
First: Kailyn and Jo hooked up off camera, and the audience thought they saw what happened, but it was actually a recreated scene. The source tells us that when it did happen it was more spontaneous: the scene we saw was more calculated, with Kail asking Jo to spend the night.
Second: Jordan and Kail seem to be breaking up on camera, and they’re both acting, um, a little weird. Especially Kail, who seems cold (a major complaint about her from the viewers of the show.) Jordan seems like he already knew that Kail cheated, and that’s because he did. According to our source, the couple had already broken up when they filmed this scene, and he didn’t find out from Kail telling him, he is said to have walked in Kail’s house to find Jo there, and Kail stepping out of the shower. Jo and Jordan then got into a screaming match outside of Kail’s house.
In the break-up scene, Kail seems angry at Jordan for walking away, but doesn’t seem to be too torn up about the situation. We’re told that when she and Jordan were going through their break-up Kail was sorry about what she did with Jo, and she wanted to work out her relationship with Jordan. By the time they filmed the scene, they had already been through an emotional ringer together, trying for a while to be together, but had ultimately ended it.
Third: Kail’s situation with Jo was a little more complicated after her breakup with Jordan. They reportedly tried to date several weeks, but it became apparent Jo didn’t want to exclusively date Kail (he was also seeing a girl named Vee.) It wasn’t just a neat, tidy little sit-down where Kail asks Jo to date her because she and Jordan broke up, and then Jo basically tells her he wants to be a player. That’s sort of the essence of what happened, but it wasn’t that simple.
We also have multiple sources telling us that while on the show it looks like Corey and Leah broke up after Leah confessed to cheating on Corey on camera, there was a lot more going on (we hear that Corey already knew about Leah’s cheating, and may have known for quite some time), and allegedly Corey had allegedly ALSO cheated on Leah. There was an incident around the time they decided to end their marriage where Leah was filmed by paparazzi crying over Facebook messages (MTV’s cameras were there, but they didn’t go with the scene.) Soon afterwards a girl named Jordan Humble came forward to US Weekly, telling them that Corey had been cheating on Leah with her. It’s a little odd that no mention of this situation was made on the show, if it’s true that Corey cheated. We also exclusively reported that right after Leah and Corey filed for divorce, Corey had moved on to a young woman named Amber Scaggs, but that relationship didn’t last long and Amber has since stated that the two never actually slept together.
Things on reality television aren’t always exactly what they seem. Reality television is a documentary style of television, but it’s primary purpose is entertainment. The producers are trying to tell a story, and sometimes that means manipulating, altering, and/or recreating “reality” to that end. Remember that before you take any of it too seriously. That doesn’t make reality television less fun, or less easy to snark, but keep in mind that there are MANY things going on, much of which the audience never sees.
Some of the comments below feel that this article was was an attempt to excuse the cheating that Leah and Kail admitted to. It definitely isn’t saying that, and are perplexed about why some people think we were. Cheating is a betrayal of trust, and it’s up to the people involved to decide how to handle it, and it’s up to the people who cheat to face the consequences.
CLICK HERE to see evidence that, shocking, Kourtney and Kim Take New York filmed a scene of Kim telling her mom that she was unhappy in her marriage AFTER she got divorced. And HERE to see a Jersey Shore staged scene.
