Amber Portwood And Matt Baier Talk Dealing With Reality TV, Love, Making Money, And Learning From The Past

Amber Portwood and Matt Baier recently opened up to Brandi Glanville on her Unfiltered podcast, where they defended their reputations and their relationship and discussed their complicated feelings about Teen Mom OG.

Brandi begins by gushing that Amber is a “gangsta!” and marvels that she’s been on TV for a decade yet still stays “relatable.” Amber takes issues with the word relatable, because most people do not have a “telescope” on their deeply personal issues. Amber explains that she spends so much time filming ‘on the couch’ because, “I don’t feel comfortable going out into a public place and talking about … cause in my life some issues I feel are very personal. For other people to just be listening or eavesdropping, it makes me uncomfortable and I’ll shut myself [down]. I want to be truthful.”

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Amber and Matt complain about “how hard” reality TV is.

“We live in a world where people are very judgmental. All the internet terrorists who can say what they want behind a cloud of anonymity,” describes Matt. Amber interrupts to clarify that she loves her fans for always defending her and jokes that she doesn’t always deserve their loyalty. “These people, no matter what, they’re there for me.”

To clear up the constant misconceptions about his life, Matt decided to write a tell-all called You Have No F–king Idea: The Naked Truth About My Life. “I’m gonna tell you the truth if you can accept it, then I’m not talking about it again.”

Matt was apparently too ‘honest’ because “MTV slashed 15,000 words” from the final copy to conceal the realities about the show, etc. “It’s called the truth – the truth got slashed,” co-signs Amber.

Brandi loves the title of Matt’s book and the word f–k in general – something she really has in common with Amber. “Now I feel like everyone’s using it and it’s not genuine,” she grumbles. Amber doesn’t cuss in front of Leah, but Brandi can’t contain herself in front of her sons. She recounts a story of her then three-year-old copying her by dropping the f-bomb. Brandi and Matt swap tales of lecturing their kids about appropriate behavior and language. I can’t even.

Amber is celebrating five years being sober. “I don’t know my actual date of when I got sober, because it’s when I went to jail.” Her addiction was so bad, Amber describes, “I would walk in to do a pee test with literally a Fentanyl patch on my cheek.”

Amber hadn’t seen Leah in two months at the time of her sentencing. She realized, then, how “disgusting” her life had become.

Amber is still emotional about it, but prison gave her direction because she started teaching self-help, addiction, and anger management classes to other inmates, and it taught her how to deal. “I do have a little bit of wisdom because of some things. When I was in prison, I didn’t just sit in there. I taught 150 women.”

On being successful and making money from reality TV while keeping it honest, Amber says, “The glam comes with it after a while, but you earned it. I’ve earned the messages I get [from fans] because people don’t know what I go through being in this.”

“I think we want people to learn from our mistakes, not just our success,” says Matt, who shares that Amber is deeply connected to “privately” helping fans dealing with drugs, prison, suicide, depression, etc – something she doesn’t broadcast. “I just feel there is a reason why I went to prison; there is a reason why I was away from my kid for that long,” explains a tearful Amber.

Brandi wonders how Amber handles the responsibility: “The world’s on your shoulders and you keep it there. And you cry a little bit here and there; you’re a woman – that’s what you do.”

“I would like to show people you can be the lowest of the low, and bring yourself back on top and not have to die and not have to be another statistic as a teen mother. That’s the goal here,” declares Amber. “The message is getting lost, though, on this show. I’m having a really hard time right now.”

“This was a docs-series when we started. The difference between 16 And Pregnant and Teen Mom in the beginning and now – complete difference. Two different shows. It’s like they’re trying to make us into Real Housewives,” sighs Amber. Brandi thinks that’s disappointing because Teen Mom should have a real message, whereas Housewives are about “glitz and glam and conflict.”

Amber and Matt are both frustrated with how they’re portrayed in the media and on TV. “People can change,” defends Matt. “We’re walking, talking examples of people who have a past that have come out on the other side. There’s hope for a lot of people.”

“I feel so bad for this guy,” Amber laughs about the bad rap Matt gets. “There’s a reason why we’re together. First of all because he’s a bad-ass mother f–ker! Nobody knows this. Me? C’mon now – everything I’ve been through, you think I’m naive? I get that all the time. We’ve broken up I don’t know how many damn times; he’s gone back to Massachusetts a couple times and came back because we love each other and it ain’t nothin! We get through it. You move on because somebody did something in their past, or you stay with them. And I’m proud of him.”

“We’re true life partners,” Matt agrees. Brandi gushes that she can see the love they have for each other.

Amber brags that when she met Matt he was an accomplished author and so humble – far from the deadbeat he plays in the ~~courts~~ show. “This man was playing poker making thousands of dollars. That was his job. When he first moved to Indiana it was really hard from him to get a job. And they completely just like bashed him. But that was my fans that did a lot of that.” Because they were protective of Amber.

Matt denies using Amber or the show for money. She confirms they only negotiated for him to be paid because he was such a huge part of the storyline. “I didn’t get paid from the show until last year. I didn’t ask for anything,” declares Matt. “Do I make a good living now? Absolutely, I’m not ashamed of it. I think I’ve earned it – going into my fourth season, I think I’ve earned it.”

“When I started filming I really didn’t talk about myself a lot, and in doing that the world decided to fill in my background for me,” he continues. “Again, I’ve always taken the approach that this show is about those four women and I inadvertently became front and center on this show without asking for any of it. And now that I’m out there and there’s nothing I can do to fight it, I’m just gonna embrace it. If I had a dime for every time somebody said to me after meeting me, ‘Wow – you’re nothing like I thought you’d be.’ I wouldn’t need to be in Hollywood right now.”

Amber who just called off their wedding – again – vehemently defends Matt. “I don’t know how many times I’ve heard this man apologize. Like all of your men you have ever been with are so perfect? Get outta here! He’s got some crazy exes – girls are trying to extort me for money!”

Matt blames those crazy exes for making up a sordid past about him.”They invent these skeletons,” he argues, “and the tabloids, the media – if they can be called media – will take anything that’s written about me and Amber, with no validation to it, then put it out there.” Amber agrees, “Then boom, like three days later, it’s debunked.”

“I know what he’s done; he knows what I’ve done.” Amber defends their volatility, “It’s life. Nobody’s beating the crap out of anyone. Yeah we fight.” But she denies abusing Matt after photos of him with black eye surfaced. “We have a very normal relationship,” adds Matt. “I’m a regular person.”

“I love media, I really do – media can you make you or break you,” says Amber. “However I wish that the people who are reading everything or watching will make up their own minds and understand that they’re smarter than just to listen.” Her mom and brother even sometimes believe tabloid stories. She jokes, “I’m in Indiana, but in the Hollywood life,” because people talk about her that don’t truly know her.

“We’re two of the most honest people you’re ever gonna run across,” insists Matt. “We have nothing to hide.”

Brandi calls Amber “very grounded” and compares her to Farrah Abraham, who was on Brandi’s show last year. “It was bad. She couldn’t look at me. She’s seriously f–ked up. It was like pulling teeth to interview with her.” Amber and Brandi jokingly speculate that Farrah was on “heavy meds” that day. Oh dear.

Amber is of course NOT friends with Farrah, but is legit close with Maci Bookout and Catelynn Lowell. “I adore them,” she shares. “You should hear us when there is no camera and no microphones. They’re badass bitches for real!”

Matt asks who Brandi stays in touch with from Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills. “I’m friends with Kim, who everyone thinks is the crazy one and she’s not. And I’m friends with Yolanda. And that is about it. They’re the ones outside of the cameras, they actually call me and check on me, and we call each other, and they go to my son’s birthday party cause I don’t want to be there alone. It’s like a real friendship and not just let’s hang out on TV and when the cameras are down, they’re gone. Most of those women are like, ‘Camera’s down – bye!'”

Amber and Matt also open up about their professional lives – apparently like they’re for-real successful. Matt wrote a novel called Guys Don’t Rat On Guys, which was originally self-published a decade earlier under a pen name, but will be re-released with a legit publisher this summer. Amber describes it as “amaaaaaaaaaazing” and shares that “possibly” some movie agencies are considering buying the rights to turn it into a script. “And we’re not talking about small, we’re talking about big [companies].”

Amber‘s “high-end fashion” boutique and their real estate company are both going well. “People say ‘You don’t have real jobs,’ but we’re constantly busy and we’re planning for the future,” insists Matt. Amber adds, “My daughter – well she’s gonna work but, my daughter’s set for college.”

Finally Amber weighs in on her relationship with Gary and the possibility of gaining more custody of Leah.

Amber praises Gary and Christina for being such good parents to Leah, and admits Christina has really reached out to her. “We’re actually co-parenting now. Gary is actually, I think, gonna surprise people this season from what has been going on. But let’s see if he actually does it. I believe in change and I get to see my boo boo more and everything. I don’t see my boo boo as much, but best believe when I have her, this kid worships me.”

“I think people want us to have animosity,” gripes Matt. “At the end of the day, we’re a family as odd and strange as it can be. We have to live with each other once the cameras go off. So that animosity’s gonna carry over into real life.”

Brandi expounds about how what makes good TV and reading, but it’s bad for her kids. Now she’s realizing this!?

You can listen to the full show here.

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[Photo Credit: Instagram]