In April 2010, MTV fans were first introduced to Kailyn Lowry when her episode of 16 and Pregnant aired. From there, Lowry was picked as one of only four of the women from the season to appear in their very own spin-off: Teen Mom 2. Now, fans have followed her story for over six years as she adjusted to co-parenting, starting a family with her now estranged husband Javi Marroquin, and she did it all while sharing her life with the MTV crew and, of course, viewers. Over the six years, most fans think they have come to know Kailyn pretty well, but there is a lot that the cameras don’t catch. From details never seen on TV to completely jaw-dropping trauma, here are the 15 most shocking revelations from Kailyn Lowry’s memoir Pride Over Pity.
15. The Drunk Mom
Fans of the series have been introduced to Kailyn’s mom, and her problems with alcohol only a couple times, and now it seems the two don’t have a relationship, but in her book, she opened up about her childhood with an alcoholic mother. Kailyn describes she couldn’t have hobbies or be in clubs or sports because her mother “had enough trouble just remembering to pick me up from school.” She also detailed a time where her mom came to pick her up after drinking and Kailyn had to try to hide it from the teachers. When she was asked about it, she told them her mom was just upset about the events of 9/11 that had happened the day before and was “really shook up.” “I’d like to pretend my mom never hurt me, but the truth is she did. I t felt like a bottle of liquid brought her more joy than spending time with her own daughter,” she wrote.
Source: MTV
14. Teenager
In the memoir, the reality star explains that her mom moved them around a lot, and her mom also had a lot of boyfriends, and one of them even tried getting her mom help. As a result, she signed temporary custody over to her neighbors, the Hopwoods, and in the end, she rarely ever had adult supervision, and quickly turned into an unruly teenager. “I was getting into fights at my high school […] occasionally, I got physical and would throw a punch,” and she landed both in-school and out of school suspensions. In the end, Kailyn reveals that when her mother was in high school, her sister Jodi was killed in a car accident, which is where she believes many of her mother’s problems stem from. Kailyn also revealed that in her teenage years she turned to smoking weed as an “escape from loneliness.”
Source: MTV
13. Early Experiences
One of the most shocking and also saddest parts of the memoir were Kailyn’s recollections of how she tried to maneuver through life at a young age with little parental supervision. Unfortunately this led her to sexual experiences at a very young age, including losing her virginity in the eighth grade on a “concrete sidewalk” because as young kids they had nowhere else to go. She then recalled her relationship with her ninth grade boyfriend, Toby. She wrote that sex wasn’t a part of their relationship, but one night when they were alone at his house, and although she denied him, he persisted, “I believed Toby loved me so I decided I could give him this one thing as long as he wore a condom.” Unfortunately, Toby took off the condom, and Kailyn was understandably upset, but she said after that night he ignored all of her attempts to get into contact with him.
Source: MTV
12. Sweet 16 To Remember
Before Kailyn caved into Toby’s pressures that night, he told her, “Let’s have a baby so we can stay together forever,” and his wish almost came true. After that night, at 15, Kailyn became pregnant for the first time. As soon as she told her mother she was pregnant, her mom’s concern was only for her reputation as the mother of a “knocked up teen” so she gave Kailyn no choice but to get an abortion. Her mother sought out Toby’s family and demanded they pay for the procedure, and although Kailyn had a choice, her mom made the decision for her saying she wouldn’t be able to live with her if she kept it. On her 16th birthday, instead of celebrating, or going to the DMV to get her driving permit, Kailyn got her abortion. “Toby’s parents forced him to sit through the entire procedure with me […] The experience added a weight to my feet, a few extra pounds to the already heavy sack I was dragging around.”
Source: MTV
11. Early Days With Jo
Fans of the show know that Kailyn is not one to really show emotion or get worked up about a new guy, and considering the spiral their relationship went down, it is particularly interesting to see her recollection of first meeting and being with Jo. As it turns out, the pair met at a McDonald’s when she wrote “isn’t the classiest place you can meet a significant other, but I guess I could give myself half a point for not meeting him at a dive bar where contracting hepatitis is a given.” Needless to say, fireworks did not go off. “I wasn’t impressed by him. I wasn’t instantly attracted. No sparks even ignited, let alone flew. First impressions truly mean very little.” She even admitted she had no plans on pursuing Jo, but because of a mutual friend that had a crush on Kailyn, the three hung out a lot, and her relationship with Jo developed. Eventually she told him that she wouldn’t have sex again until she was in a committed relationship, and he respected that and eventually officially asked her out.
Source: TeenMomNews
10. Telling Everyone
According to Kailyn, the pair “broke up every other week…our personalities clashed…I don’t know why or how our relationship lasted, but through thick and thin our bumpy path continued right up until May of Jo’s senior year (my junior year).” For Kailyn and Jo, however, prom night had a much bigger meaning because that is the night Jo lost his virginity and the night they conceived Isaac. After finding out for sure, she told Jo by handing him the positive test, and he immediately told his mom. Jo’s mom, Janet, had his older brother Eddie Jr. when she was 16, and when she sat them down to talk about it, Kailyn realized she knew for sure “an abortion was absolutely off the table.” During his graduation party, Jo then made the big announcement to his entire family. “To my surprise, congratulations echoed from every corner of the room. His family’s genuine support made me feels so much more confident I could actually have this baby.”
Source: MTV
9. Enter MTV
Of course, Kailyn’s mother wasn’t happy and so the decision was made that Jo and Kailyn would live in his parent’s basement, but while they prepared the basement, Kailyn had to try to live amicably with her mother. While trying to distract herself, she turned to MTV’s 16 & Pregnant which had huge success with its first season, and when she went online, she discovered it was casting for a second season. It didn’t take long before Kailyn was picked, and she didn’t know what to expect from participating in the show. The first thing they wanted to film was Kailyn at school and right away she was unsure. “The first few hours of filming were the most awkward. I wasn’t used to having a lot of attention directed at me and now I suddenly had cameras following me around […] The impact on my life of being a part of a reality television show was overwhelming and I was’t sure if I could handle it.”
Source: MTV
8. Long Lost Dad
Although Kailyn’s mom wasn’t the best parent, she was the only parent Kailyn had because her dad left when she was six months old, and her mom never really explained what happened. According to her mom, Kailyn’s dad took her from Pennsylvania to Texas when she was just a few months old, but her mom tracked him down with lawyers and detectives. Then, at three months pregnant, out of the blue, she was contacted by her father’s sister, and so a trip to Texas was planned, MTV crews and all. Unfortunately, her father disappointed her right from the beginning. “The man who greeted me had a mullet, missing teeth, and was at least a foot shorter than I thought he would be.” Her trip ended up being a string of disappointments, and the relationship between father and daughter could not be repaired, but Kailyn did discover she had a sister and cousins, some of whom she became close with.
Source: Wetpaint
7. The Cheating
Despite family drama and pregnancy, Kailyn worked hard to make sure she could still graduate high school, and Jo had been working hard at Taco Bell to try to prepare for his baby, but his and Kailyn’s relationship deteriorated further. With many late night shifts and missing classes at Northampton Community College, Kailyn began to worry Jo was cheating with one of his coworkers. Eventually while at a doctor’s appointment, Jo admitted he was seeing someone else and had “gone so far as to put his uniform on when he went out and bring his regular clothes in a bag so I would think he was working when he was really meeting up with her.”
Source: MTV
6. Isaac’s Health
Despite the problems between the two, they stayed together and soon enough she was going into labor, all while MTV cameras tried to catch every minute. What the 16 and Pregnant cameras didn’t show, however, was the entire day of labor she went through. After the birth, Isaac had jaundice because he was born a month and a half early and his liver wasn’t fully developed. Unfortunately, after coming home from the hospital Kailyn had another scare when Isaac was 4 years old and experienced a seizure. “Isaac was on my lap and I was trying to play with him and bond as usual. He’d laugh here and there but I couldn’t get much out of him, which was a tad on the unusual side. Was he getting sick? Suddenly, Isaac’s movements came to a halt. He went limp and his eyes rolled back. Then he threw up. I immediately dialed 911.” Isaac then had another seizure while in the hospital, and thankfully has not had one ever again.
5. Jordan/Leaving Jo
After Isaac’s birth, on Valentine’s Day, Jo proposed to Kailyn with his mother’s engagement ring, but only three or four months later, they ended the engagement. As Kailyn started looking for a job to get her out of the house and help bring in money, she was told she had been selected for Teen Mom 2. Although they ended the engagement, they were still living together, and that is when she met Jordan, who fans will know from the show. At first they were just “friends,” but Kailyn still hid the relationship, and although no one, especially Jo’s parents, were happy with Kailyn dating someone new, they accepted it, and she had to move out. Kailyn found Valley Youth House which is a housing program for single mothers, but what she didn’t admit then was that she had to spend two nights in a shelter in order to qualify. She told everyone she was doing community service, even Jordan when he dropped her off. ”
Source: Twitter
4. Trauma
Although things were going very well with Jordan, Kailyn admitted that the constant media attention started getting to both of them, and despite her feelings for Jordan, Kailyn cheated on him with Jo. After her breakup with Jordan, Kailyn met a “friend” Caleb, and they started casually seeing each other. He finally asked her out on a date, but they were not sleeping together. One night, however, Caleb showed up at Kailyn’s apartment, drunk and saying they needed to talk. When she let him in, he raped her: “I screamed and tried to shove him off, ordering him to stop touching me, but I was no match for his tall, muscular frame. His strength was so overpowering, I could barely move. I felt a tear and knew I was bleeding. When he finished, he left me in tears, screaming for him to leave.” Kailyn knew she needed help, and even though they had broken up, she called Jordan who rushed her to the hospital. She revealed her insides were so torn they had to stitch her with the thickest thread they had, but she couldn’t tell anyone, Jordan or the doctors what had happened. Kailyn admits in the book she never reported Caleb to the police, and he never contacted her again. The traumatic experienced caused her to withdraw, and until writing her book had only told a few select people about it.
Source: MTV
3. Javi
While trying to move on with her life by attending college, Kailyn had no interest in relationships, that is until Javi Marroquin came along. The pair first met when Kailyn was working at a clothing store in the mall, and since it worked on commission, she “pounced” on customers. She convinced a young man who “looked 15” to buy a really expensive shirt, but he brought it back the next day, and asked if he could take her out for ice cream; that guy turned out to be Javi. For about two months the pair were just friends, but then Javi drove himself all the way to New York where Kailyn was filming the season three reunion show of Teen Mom 2 and she “couldn’t deny his attraction” to her any longer. Kailyn told Javi she didn’t intend to ever be with him, and after spending time apart their friendship blossomed again and, during a trip to visit his cousin at West Virginia University, Kailyn told him she did want to be with him.
2. Aria
As Kailyn and Javi dove head first into their relationship, trouble started brewing because of her anger problems, but they stuck it out. One of their biggest hurdles, however, came from Kailyn’s former close friend, Aria. After Aria started getting into a lifestyle Kailyn didn’t agree with, things blew up between the two, and Aria dragged some skeletons out of Kailyn’s closet. In her memoir, Kailyn admits that in middle school she had a girlfriend, stating, “We kissed and touched each other. At such a young age, I didn’t stop to analyze what this meant about my sexuality, even though I knew we had a unique friendship […] looking back, I realize that I thought of her as my girlfriend even if we never officially acknowledged it. Years later, she came out as a lesbian.” Kailyn never had sexual experiences with girls again until she met Aria. Although the two never dated, they did hook up once when she was still living at Jo’s. “There was a deleted scene from Teen Mom 2 where we discussed the nature of our friendship and if it would ever go further…Aria was convinced I was gay like her.” Eventually, Aria told Javi that Kailyn was gay and she would eventually leave him to be with her, and it caused Javi to leave. After a dramatic attempt to talk to him, Javi calmed down and the pair got past it, but Kailyn has forever been followed by questions about her sexuality since.
1. New Life
Published in 2014, Pride Over Pity was written just after Javi and Kailyn’s son Lincoln was born in November of 2013, and does not take into account their nasty breakup. At the time, however, it seems they were truly happy and the day before she went to Texas to celebrate Javi’s graduation from the Air Force, Jo stepped back in. “Jo went on to say he couldn’t sleep straight for a year. I almost gasped at the serious tone his voice had taken on. As he spoke, I couldn’t help but notice he didn’t mention his girlfriend once. He didn’t even acknowledge the fact that he wasn’t single. Why? I think she had no idea what his true feelings were because he kept them buried deep. He never admitted any of this on television.” Of course, Kailyn turned Jo down, but for fans, it now explains the strange attitude Javi and Jo had and have had towards each other.
