Courtesy of Leah Messer/Instagram
‘Teen Mom 2’ Star Leah Messer Slams MTV for Taking ‘Advantage’ of Her Drug Addiction: ‘Cut the Cameras’
Pointing fingers. Teen Mom 2 star Leah Messer claims MTV failed to intervene during her struggles with drug addiction, claiming they “took advantage” of her.
“You can see me high. Cut the cameras,” Leah, 31, said during an interview with Teen Vogue which was published on June 22. “You can see me falling asleep or whatever. Cut the cameras and immediately do an intervention … instead of using it for the benefit of TV and drama.”
According to the profile story, the Hope, Grace & Faith author could not recall a time when the camera crew stopped filming “an obviously high young mother as she struggled to take care of her children.”
The mother of three – who shares 13-year-old twin daughters Aliannah and Aleeah with ex-husband Corey Simms and 10-year-old daughter Adalynn with second ex-husband Jeremy Calvert – previously opened up about her dependency on prescription painkillers which she claims began after a botched epidural.
“It was actually the scene, they were talking about how we were being flirty and trying to get back together but honestly, the entire scene was about the botched spinal tap and how Jeremy had to carry me from one room to the next because I couldn’t walk,” she said during a November 2018 episode of her podcast “Life Reboot.” “I just went in to deliver Addie and they injected me 13 times and, even in the hospital, I couldn’t get up — and they just put me on morphine.”
Despite not being able to walk for days after giving birth in February 2013, Leah was sent home with “three different drugs.”
“By then, I was already … you can’t say that I wasn’t, already, dependent on the medication,” she continued, later adding, “Well, then they put me on Diazepam and it has me nodding off. I didn’t even know what that was!”
The 16 & Pregnant alum ultimately checked herself into a rehabilitation facility at the persuasion of Teen Mom producer Larry Musnik.
While a producer of the series told Teen Vogue that they were simply following the “principles of documentary filmmaking — we document, we don’t intervene,” the West Virginia native acknowledges that without Larry, she might not have accepted help.
“It’s bittersweet, because I probably wouldn’t have been able to get the help I had without [MTV],” she said. “So I thank them. Then it’s also like, damn, something could have been done differently, without a shadow of a doubt.”
MTV did not immediately respond to In Touch‘s request for comment.
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