If you caught this week’s episode of Teen Mom 2, there’s a solid chance it inspired you to have yourself a good long cry.
And not just because of all that truly depressing footage of Jenelle Evans.
While Jenelle’s segments got a lot of attention this week — which makes sense, given how upsetting they were — we also need to take some extra time to talk about Leah Messer’s scenes.
Particularly that heartbreaking one with Gracie.
In the scene we’re talking about, we saw Leah have a conversation with Gracie about Ali’s health.
(Just in case you need a quick refresher, Ali and Gracie are Leah’s twins, and Ali is the one suffering from a rare form of muscular dystrophy.)
We’ve seen a little bit of Ali’s struggles this season — that terrifying scene in which Corey Simms had to rush her to the hospital because of her breathing comes to mind.
We’ve also seen Leah discussing Ali’s declining health, and how things have gotten so bad that her teacher recommended an aide for her time at school.
But what we haven’t really seen too much of, this season or in previous seasons, is how Leah’s other children feel about Ali’s condition.
That changed in this most recent episode.
In what may be one of the most heartbreaking moments in the show’s history, Gracie asked Leah about the reason behind Ali’s muscular dystrophy.
“Is it because I crammed her up?” she asked. “Because I squished her?”
Because it turns out that Gracie had been blaming herself for her sister’s disease, because she was the bigger twin and she worried their positioning in Leah’s womb hurt her.
Leah tried to tell her that that wasn’t the case, that it was a gene mutation and nothing Gracie did.
She didn’t really understand it all, but Leah made sure to repeat that it wasn’t her fault at all.
One of Leah’s Twitter followers applauded her for how she handled the situation, and rightfully so. She replied that it was “a difficult real moment.”
“Broke my heart,” she told another follower who commented on the scene. “She is so torn… She doesn’t want to believe it’s real. However, it’s like, she kind of knows it’s real, and feels guilt.”
Another person asked why Gracie felt that why, and Leah explained that it was because of “just seeing baby pictures and ultrasound pics” in which it’s obvious that Ali was smaller.
“I guess she just assumed that and has never said anything until that moment!” she added.
And as if all the talk about Gracie and Ali wasn’t touching enough, Leah also made some comments about some other struggles she’s gone through.
One person told her that she should be proud of herself of how far she’s come in the past couple of years, that “you made mistakes in your past but you learnt from them, took responsibility & changed for the better.”
We assume this person is referring to Leah’s widely rumored drug use in an earlier season of Teen Mom 2 — the alleged drug use that led to her losing custody of the twins to Corey.
“We all make mistakes but it’s up to us whether we choose to grow from them or not!” she replied. “I want to be better every single day!”
Another fan told her that it had looked like she was “going down a bad path” then, but she’s since “turned it around.”
“Thanks,” Leah wrote in response. “A journey not yet shared and only a few know… #onlyintime.”
“It’s far deeper than any assumption thats been made,” she continued. “I know my story is going to inspire/change so many lives! #everythinghappensforareason.”
So that’s interesting, right?
On the show and in interviews, Leah has always been adamant that she went to rehab for anxiety issues — she’s never admitted to any drug use.
Is she saying that she’ll soon reveal what really happened then? And is she hinting that while many people assume she was using some kind of drugs, things were worse even than that?
Yeah, we’re going to need a million more details about all of this, Leah.
Thanks!
