TLC’s Birth Moms: Former prostitute pregnant Kandice Machado smokes, drinks, and admits to shoplifting on camera

And we thought Jersey Shore was out-of-control! This is some truly shocking behavior!

23-year-old former prostitute and drug addict Kandice Machado got pregnant from a one-night stand. She is featured on the TLC show Birth Moms, which follows Kandice and two other pregnant young women (Lindsay Batts, and Taylor Walters) who stay at an adoption center and decide whether or not to place their child in an adoptive home.

Kandice, who already has two kids, is seen smoking on camera, openly talks about shoplifting (she calls it “professional shopping,”) and demands alcohol.

She is taped by TLC’s cameras grabbing lots of jewelry off of an unnamed discount store’s shelves (the cameras never show her actually walking out with out paying, though,) and then bragging about stealing on camera.

“I am considered a ‘professional shopper.’ I have a discount. I get things for free. I went “shopping” today, and got all the girls stuff.

“I’m not even gonna lie, I shoplift. Catch me if you can. I’m not ashamed of what I do, if it came down to it, I would go prostitute my body if one of these girls with a kid needed something. I would go prostitute my body for $5 to feed the kids.”

“Me helping other people makes me stronger in God’s eyes.”

Lindsay commented about Kandice’s “professional shopping” habit: “She got necklaces and stuff, but she didn’t get them all for herself, she got gifts, which was nice. So it was a good thing, in a bad way. I didn’t see nothin’.’”

Is it any surprise the girls in the complex eye Kandice when their cash and medicine starts to disappear?

Later, the three girls go to a Mexican restaurant because both Kandace and Lindsay want to have drinks. Kandace, however, was denied the banana-strawberry margarita she ordered because she didn’t have her ID. Why didn’t she have her ID, you ask? Because she got “caught shoplifting” and according to Kandice “The cops stole my ID and won’t give it back to me.”

When the other girls suggest they get wine on the way home, she exclaims “I don’t want wine, I want tequila.” So desperate for a margarita, she called the police department while she’s still at the restaurant. Apparently when they ran her ID, they forgot to give it back to her, so it had not actually been suspended. Oddly enough, the police officer actually brings her ID to the restaurant (and of course, she smokes outside while she waits.) Kandice brags about the whole incident “The police officer came at my beck and call. Nobody f**ks with me, not even police officers.”

While driving to her prenatal appointment with level-headed Taylor, Kandice asks “Are you sure it’s not gonna die if I don’t get cigarettes in him?” Taylor replied “You should STOP smoking!”

In interview, Taylor points out: “Smoking, drinking: you are risking someone else’s life that you shouldn’t even be in control of.”

Amen, Taylor!

According to the March of Dimes, babies who are born to a woman who smoked throughout her pregnancy are at risk for being born “with birth defects such as cleft lip or palate, prematurely, or at low birthweight.”

The icing on the cake is that Kandice also has asthma (she asks to move apartments because her apartment has stairs, which makes her out of breath because she has asthma and smokes.)

Here’s a clip of the restaurant incident:

Kandice is going to school to be a pharmacology technician.

It’s kind of unfortunate that Kandice’s story overshadowed sweet Taylor Walter’s a bit. Taylor seemed like a nice, smart girl who already had one child, Neveah, and because she didn’t have a job or a stable environment (the father of both of her babies was currently in jail,) felt like she couldn’t probably care for her new baby.

She reminded us a lot of Teen Mom‘s Catelynn Lowell because her story was both inspiring and heartbreaking to watch. You could tell she desperately loved her new baby, but was more strongly moved to give him a better life than what she could give him with her current limited options. Taylor was also genuinely concerned about how Kandice and other girls treated their unborn babies. Taylor is currently enrolled in cosmetology school, however, she recently got arrested in Florida for failure to appear in court for a grand theft charge.

Lindsay’s story was extremely truncated, we didn’t even get to see her give birth, but an update said she placed her baby (she got pregnant in a terrible situation: she was raped while she was blacked out on pills.)

It’s always a heartbreaking experience to watch a young mother have to separate from her baby immediately after birth, but in these circumstances, it’s the greatest act of love.

UPDATE: Lindsay Batts posted this comment to our Facebook page:

“I have met so many women who smoke while pregnant but its only bad when kandice does? she wanted alcohol did anyone see her actually drink any? But what wasn’t shown was her buying my daughter food when we were low buying anyone anything if she could she is a nice person its tv what do you expect hate all you want but none of you know her.”

No one saw her actually drink any alcohol, but we did see her admit to the doctor that she had a drink a few days prior. Also, it’s never okay for any woman to smoke while pregnant, not just Kandice. Thanks for telling us about Kandice buying your daughter food, that was a sweet and kind thing to do and should have been included on the show.

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