Amber Portwood and Gary Shirley may not be back together, but that doesn’t mean they can’t raise their daughter, Leah as a team.
“Me and Gary sat on his front porch and talked about everything,” Portwood told People Magazine ahead of Teen Mom OG‘s season premiere tonight.
“[We were] like ‘Okay, what should we do?’ And we made the decision that he would take primary custody, simply because we didn’t want to take her out of her school.
“She’s going to a really great school and she’s in an advanced class and I don’t want to take that away from her.”
Last week, MTV shared a preview of Portwood discussing custody with her friend, Krystal.
Portwood revealed that the animosity between her and Gary was affecting the 7-year-old, so she decided to put whatever issues she has with her ex aside for the well-being of their daughter.
“What we did was we did joint custody where it’s open communication,” Portwood told People.
“It actually says in the contract that it’s open communication to see BooBoo during the school year.
“I can call everyday and go pick her up from school if I wanted to. I have her on my weekends and during the summer we had her back and forth 50/50. It was great. I would have her for like a week straight and we’re doing really good with this.”
What’s even better is that Portwood and Shirley don’t have to go back to court to discuss custody. It’s not, however, smooth sailing for this famously volatile duo.
I mean, come on. It’s as smooth as it can be,” Portwood said with a laugh, referring to how she and Shirley communicate.
“Me and Gary don’t exactly have the greatest way of communicating, but we’re doing better. It’s going the way that everybody would think it’s going.”
Portwood gushed about Leah, and what a good big sister she is to Shirley’s daughter Emily with his wife, Kristina Anderson.
“She’s so smart,” Portwood said of Leah.
“I know every mom says that about their kids, but she’s just excelling. She’s so beautiful; I don’t know where she gets it. It’s crazy.
“She’s the greatest big sister to Emily. She loves that little girl. It’s the cutest thing. And Emily kind of looks like her when she was little. She’s the cutest little thing.”
Teen Mom OG returns to MTV tonight at 10 p.m. ET
