Catelynn Lowell spoke about being sexually abused as a child for the first time on camera during the Teen Mom: The Next Chapter reunion.
MTV viewers watched this past season as Catelynn’s husband, Tyler Baltierra, unpacked his own childhood sexual abuse in intensive therapy sessions.
“I was holding on to a lot of guilt and shame,” Tyler, 31, told hosts Dr. Drew Pinsky and Nessa in the solemn reunion sit-down, which aired Wednesday, October 11. He explained that being molested as a child “created this hypersexuality” in him as a teen, which then led to a series of other traumas: namely, he and Catelynn, also 31, getting pregnant at 17 and placing daughter Carly for adoption.
“A big thing for me was letting that go,” Tyler said. “It’s not the kid’s fault.”
When Catelynn noted that there is a stigma surrounding men speaking out about past sexual trauma, Dr. Drew asked her if she was abused as a child as well. Catelynn confirmed that she was.
“[I was] probably like, 7 or 8 [years old],” she said. “That’s the first time [I] ever [said] it on camera. I’m 31 and I … never told my parents about it until recently. [I told my dad] and my mom.”
Catelynn has long had a rocky relationship with her mom, April, which has played out on camera since her episode of 16 and Pregnant in 2009.
When Dr. Drew suggested that her recent revelation could be a factor in her mom’s reason for drinking again, Catelynn immediately shut the theory down, explaining that her mom’s response was nothing but callous and cruel.
“No, her response to me was — she said that I sounded dumb as f—k,” Catelynn shared, which Tyler reiterated. “And then she called me on the phone and she was wasted.”
Catelynn added that her mom even “got a tattoo of the word ‘toxic’ on her body for me, because I call her toxic.”
Catelynn and Tyler — who are parents of Nova, 8, Vaeda, 4, and Rya, 2 — have been together since middle school and tied the knot in 2015. In a September episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, Tyler praised his wife in a letter to his younger self as part of a therapy exercise.
“There will come a time in your life when that pain is so excruciating that the only remedy for the unbearable suffering you’re feeling is to die,” Tyler read out loud to Catelynn, reflecting on his own childhood sexual abuse. “I’m here to tell you that you will survive for a reason, and that reason has a name. It’s Cate.”
He continued: “You will meet the most purest example of love that you’ve ever felt or witnessed in your life because of her. She will show you how you truly are worthy of love. She’ll prove to you why you weren’t supposed to die that day. You will fall madly in love and that love will result in the other reason you survived, and that’s to be a father, to bring four beautiful children into the world, to give those children the father you never had, and by giving them that you will break so many generational traumas.”
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
