Teen Mom OG's Amber Portwood has been in the headlines quite a bit recently, though unfortunately for reasons that aren't very positive and cheery for the MTV series itself. Amber Portwood's recent legal and personal issues, which include an alleged attack on her boyfriend involving a machete, have reportedly put her in a negative spot with the Teen Mom series, which she will likely be booted from if she's convicted of the felony charges laid against her.
It's being reported that Amber Portwood was already wading in hot water over her July 5 arrest and trio of charges, including two counts of domestic battery and one count of criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon. The longtime Teen Mom star is set to return to court later this month after bailing out of jail the day after her arrest, and if she gets convicted, TMZ's sources say it'll be the last straw for MTV, which has maintained its relationship with Portwood through some controversial convictions in years past.
The seriousness of the crimes involved in this case are claimed to be the deciding factor in how MTV and show producers handle Amber Portwood's future with Teen Mom OG. It's stated all involved are currently content with letting things move forward legally before any official decisions are made about the TV series.
For those who aren't aware of how this situation first went down, police were alerted to an Indianapolis address on Friday, July 5, at a time after 3:00 a.m. According to the court affidavit (via the Indy Star), Amber Portwood's boyfriend Andrew Glennon had just previously sent a text to an officer calling for help, saying that his and his son's life were "in danger."
It was claimed by the boyfriend that he and Portwood started arguing around 2 a.m., and at one point, she got angry enough to strike him on the side of his neck with one of her shoes. Andrew Glennon was holding their young son at the time. The child suffered zero injuries, though scratches and red marks could be seen by officers on Glennon's neck. He claimed that Portwood has hit him various times in the past, and has made "countless" threats against him.
The machete came into play when Amber Portwood allegedly used it on the door to a room that her boyfriend and son had locked themselves in to hide from her. She also reportedly threatened to commit suicide by overdosing on the medication clonazepam. (Portwood has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder.) After she was released from jail, a restraining order was placed against her by boyfriend Andrew Glennon.
This latest situation was perhaps foreshadowed by Amber Portwood's past legal issues. Back in 2010, she was arrested and charged with separate counts of domestic violence after MTV aired footage of her getting violent with then-boyfriend Gary Shirley. It was with Shirley that she conceived daughter Leah, which is how she landed the Teen Mom gig to begin with.
In November 2011, she was arrested on felony possession charges, which violated the probation from her earlier arrest. Things got rough for Portwood at that point, as she took on rounds of drug tests and faced some jail time in 2012, though she got out early (in 2013) due to good behavior. At that point, she entered a marriage-on and marriage-off relationship with Matt Baier that ended in 2017 that wasn't at the center of any major arrests.
Amber Portwood is hardly the only Teen Mom alum to factor into such headlines. Jenelle Evans has had her own relationship foibles, both illegal and legal, getting attention from police and audiences. Evans ended up getting fired and edited out of the show after her problems got to be too much for MTV to handle.
With her bigger court dates yet to come, Amber Portwood's future with MTV's Teen Mom franchise waits in the wings. While waiting to hear what happens, be sure to check out all the great TV coming to the summer primetime schedule, as well as all the awesome new and returning shows hitting this fall.
