It’s hard to believe it’s almost been 10 months since Amber Portwood began her prison sentence after she opted to go that route instead of completing a court-mandated drug rehab program. Her daughter Leah’s father, Gary Shirley, was thinking the same thing on Easter and expressed as much via Twitter. In doing so, Gary also revealed that Amber has yet to see Leah since her incarceration.
On Sunday, Shirley tweeted this out to his over 270,000 followers, tagging Amber’s brother Shawn:
Wow can’t believe it’s been a year since Leah seen her mom.Last time was Easter.@shawnportwood
— Gary Shirley (@ItsGaryTime) March 31, 2013
The tweet took many by surprise as most assumed that Gary would have taken Leah to visit Amber by now. Gary had promised to do just that to Dr. Drew during the Amber Portwood Behind Bars special that aired on MTV back in October. Dr. Drew emphasized how important it was in Leah’s development for her to know that her mom was still in her life. Gary even revealed that Drew followed up with a phone call imploring Shirley to follow through with the visitation.
Shirley explained at the time that the reason Leah hadn’t seen her mom was because of an issue with paperwork, the reason Shirley still gives for the situation. He responded to fans inquiries about the circumstance with the following:
Yes ambers wants to see her and its not her fault. Papers were filled out wrong or lost redoing them.
— Gary Shirley (@ItsGaryTime) March 31, 2013
During the special, Amber stated that Gary had received the proper paperwork on a number of occasions and that she felt he was, “trying to protect Leah.”
Shawn Portwood, who blogged a detailed update on how much his sister was progressing in prison back in January, suggested that Gary, “Do the video visitation. That way Amber can at least see her.”
