‘Teen Mom’ star Amber Portwood makes plea for missing fiancé: ‘Very scared right now’

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“Amber Portwood, a former star of ‘Teen Mom,’ made a tearful plea for help in locating her fiancé, Gary Wayt, who went missing shortly after their reported engagement earlier this week.

“My fiancé is missing right now, and we don’t know where he is,” the 34-year-old expressed during a livestream on the Elle Bee YouTube channel on Tuesday. “It’s a huge concern. His parents and everyone are deeply worried. I’m scared… we’re all very scared.”

Portwood described their last conversation before Wayt disappeared as highly emotional.

The Bryson City Police Department in North Carolina issued a missing person alert for Wayt on Tuesday. They described him as a 39-year-old man, 6 feet 1 inch tall, with brown eyes. Wayt was last seen in the Arlington Avenue area of Bryson City, which is situated more than 60 miles west of Asheville.

According to reports from Us Weekly and E! News, police were able to locate Wayt in Oklahoma using video footage.

Bryson City Police Chief Charlie Robinson informed local ABC affiliate WLOS News 13 that Wayt and Portwood had been visiting from Indiana for Portwood’s brother’s wedding on June 8 and had recently become engaged.

Portwood responded to online speculation that she and her fiancé had a major argument before he went missing. “There wasn’t any big blowout fight or anything like that, okay?” she clarified. “I’m not what people have been saying about me all these years. I changed a long time ago.”

She continued, “We haven’t had explosive fights; we’re very much in love. He asked me to be with him, and then he asked me to marry him. I haven’t harmed him in any way, and he hasn’t harmed me. We don’t yell at each other; we have a wonderful relationship.”

Calling Wayt “the love of my life,” Portwood pleaded, “Please don’t make up stories about what might have happened between us. We have a beautiful relationship… This is the first time I’ve had a good man in my life.”

Portwood has faced legal troubles related to domestic violence and drug possession over the past decade. In 2011, she pleaded guilty to domestic battery involving her then-partner Gary Shirley, who is the father of her 15-year-old daughter, Leah. She served time in prison for violating probation terms but later completed rehabilitation and has since maintained stability.

“In any 12-step program, you learn that you have to change your people, places, and things,” she explained in an interview with Indiana’s The Herald Bulletin in 2015. “When I got out of prison, I stayed with my grandmother for a while. I needed to change everything… I didn’t hang out with my old friends. I didn’t go to the same places.”

Portwood faced further legal issues in October 2019, pleading guilty to felony charges of domestic battery and intimidation. This followed allegations by police that she had threatened her boyfriend, Andrew Glennon, with a machete while he held their one-year-old son, James.

“This isn’t about my past or the show. It’s about the fact that this person is missing. His family is suffering; I’m suffering terribly. This is the man I love,” she emphasized during Tuesday’s livestream. “Don’t worry about me; I’m stable. I’ve been stable for years now, okay? I’ve been stable. Please don’t assume the worst.”