Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra went from being middle school sweethearts to MTV sensations. Follow along on their romantic journey that has spanned over a decade.
Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra, who are both 28 years old now, have one of the most legendary love stories in the Teen Mom franchise. For starters, Catelynn and Tyler are the only couple from the franchise’s very first show — 16 and Pregnant — to still be together over a decade after the series premiered on MTV in 2009.
Catelynn and Tyler are still starring on Teen Mom to this day (specifically, Teen Mom OG), and are raising two daughters together as a happily married couple: Novalee, 5, and Vaeda, 1. Despite this happy success story, Catelynn and Tyler have experienced many ups and downs together — learn more about them in our timeline below:
Where It Began: Middle School
We met in 7th grade music class. Cate had blonde hair with pink highlights & a shirt that said “I’m with the drummer”. I had hair down to my shoulders & Tripp pants from hot topic. That summer of 7/15/06, 2 wild kids fell in love & nobody said they would last ??? #13YearsStrong https://t.co/Y8FScwaqqO
— Tyler Baltierra (@TylerBaltierra) July 27, 2019
Tyler and Catelynn first crossed paths in seventh grade in 2005. Catelynn immediately caught Tyler’s eye, since she gave off the same punk vibes that he did. “We met in 7th grade music class. Cate had blonde hair with pink highlights & a shirt that said ‘I’m with the drummer’. I had hair down to my shoulders & Tripp pants from hot topic. That summer of 7/15/06, 2 wild kids fell in love & nobody said they would last,” Tyler revealed on Twitter.
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In the photo above, Tyler and Catelynn were only 15 years old! It was taken a year before they went on to welcome their first child, which Tyler pointed out in the caption.
Tyler and Catelynn grew so close, even their parents — Tyler’s father Butch and Catelynn’s mother April — fell in love with one another and tied the knot. However, Butch and April divorced in 2013.
A Baby Is On The Way
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Fast forward to high school, and Catelynn and Tyler discovered that they’re going to be parents in 2008! Both were only 16 years old and juniors in high school after learning the life-changing news. The couple, who had been together for three years already by that point, later made an unconventional decision.
Catelynn & Tyler Go The Adoption Route — Which MTV Documents
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Catelynn and Tyler decided they’re not ready to raise a child, so they put up their first baby together for adoption. This process was documented on their episode of Season 1 of 16 and Pregnant, which showed the teenage parents picking a couple named Brandon and Teresa to adopt their baby girl, whom the adoptive parents eventually named Carolyn “Carly” Elizabeth Davis.
To this day, Catelynn and Tyler still get to see their firstborn thanks to an open adoption agreement that allows the couple to make these yearly visits and receive photos of Carly.
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“Placing Carly in the beginning was important for me to share with the world, just because I felt like there wasn’t a ‘true’ vision of what adoption was really like,” Catelynn later explained of her and Tyler’s decision to showcase the adoption on television, according to the Adoptions With Love agency. She added, “MTV really did it with my episode of 16 & Pregnant because it just showed the reality of adoption and it kind of ended some of the stigmas. It was scary to do [the show] also, because I mean, me myself, I was learning about adoption through that process, as I was going through it.”
The Couple Joins ‘Teen Mom’
(Photo Credit: MTV)
Tyler and Catelynn’s lives post-adoption were documented on the first season of Teen Mom, which aired in the later half of 2009. Tyler and Catelynn were now seniors in high school. Although the young lovers found a loving family for Carly, the season shows Catelynn’s parents’ disapproval towards Catelynn and Tyler’s decision to opt for adoption.
Tyler Pops The Big Question
"I just wanna tell you… I love you a lot." ?
Relive the moment that @CatelynnLowell and @TylerBaltierra got engaged as we look back on 10 Years of #TeenMomOG. pic.twitter.com/U7xaCVk5rz
— Teen Mom (@TeenMom) June 3, 2019
Amid Season 1 of Teen Mom, Tyler took Catelynn out on a romantic dinner date, took out a ring and said, “I wanted to ask you…if you will marry me?” Catelynn didn’t hesitate to say yes! You can relive the sentimental moment below.
Drama Goes Down On ‘Teen Mom’
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At the beginning of Season 2 of Teen Mom, which aired in 2010, Tyler discovers that Catelynn had lied about getting intimate with her ex while she was on a brief break from Tyler. Although this sparked a falling out between Catelynn and Tyler, they eventually work out their problems and continue their relationship.
The Engagement Is Called Off
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Tyler decided that he and Catelynn are not ready to tie the knot after all, which he revealed on the VH1 show Couples Therapy in July of 2013. Tyler sat down with Dr. Berman on the show and expressed his doubts: “Do I need to go find myself a little bit more instead of getting stuck in this rut, because I feel that once we’re married, then I’m going to be stuck in this rut forever, and this is how my life’s going to be for the rest of my life. And I don’t know if I’m OK with that.
Tyler also feared that Catelynn was settling. “She’d probably never admit it, but I feel like sometimes she ‘puts up’ with me. I believe we’re both doing the same thing — that our self esteem is so low we’re just dealing and saying, ‘Well she’s probably the best I can get.’ ‘He’s probably the best I can get.’ And that we’re just kind of settling,” Tyler explained. “And I always told myself I was never going to settle. And I feel really, really bad saying this, but sometimes I feel like I should have you know, just left her and been done with it.”
Another Baby On The Way
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Despite their ended engagement, Tyler and Catelynn still went on to conceive a second child. Catelynn, who was then 22 years old, announced the happy news in the Instagram post above, shared in Aug. 2014.
The Engagement Is Back On
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Tyler was ready to get married again. He proposed in an MTV special called Being Catelynn that premiered on TV in Feb. 2014, and even surprised his fiancée with another engagement ring that paid tribute to their second child, who was not born yet, for Christmas that year. You can see the ring above!
Tyler & Catelynn Welcome Their Second Baby & Tie The Knot
2015 was a big year for Tyler and Catelynn. They welcomed their second child — and the first they’d raise together — on the very first day of January, a daughter named Novalee (“Nova” for short). Then, in August of that year, the longtime loves finally married in a ceremony at the gorgeous Castle Farms venue in Michigan. During that same year, the couple even co-authored a book called Conquering Chaos.
Catelynn Suffers A Miscarriage & Suicidal Thoughts
Well today I thought of every way to kill myself.. so I'm going to treatment #makeChesterProud @TalindaB #KeepTalkingMH #thiswontlast
— Catelynn Baltierra (@CatelynnLowell) November 17, 2017
Catelynn became pregnant with her third child in 2017, but sadly lost the child that very same year. Shortly after the loss, Catelynn checked into a treatment center for depression after experiencing suicidal thoughts.
“It was after we struggled with a miscarriage, and I kept waking up with panic attacks, and they were not going away — it was for, like, two weeks. And I think when you keep waking up with panic attacks over and over, it leads me into a depression. I just remember thinking like, ‘I don’t wanna wake up like this anymore’,” Catelynn went on to explain on her podcast, Coffee Convos, in June of 2019. She added, “I was just thinking random things like, ‘I’m gonna drive off the road and hit that pole,’ or thinking of all these different ways that I could commit suicide.”
Treatment worked for Catelynn, who found better medication and worked through past traumas, like giving up her first child for adoption.
Catelynn & Tyler Try Out A Trial Separation
The 30 days wasn’t even a total isolated “separation”. I was 8 min down the road & we had dinner dates, family movie nights, went on a mini vacation & it was EXACTLY what we needed for US! People can hate on me all day but my self assurance is not reliant on society’s acceptance https://t.co/OrrBEBU5NH
— Tyler Baltierra (@TylerBaltierra) December 18, 2018
Catelynn and Tyler decided to live apart for 30 days in the fall of 2018, which of course sparked speculation of an impending divorce. However, Tyler insisted it really wasn’t that big of a deal — they just needed some time apart.
“It’s funny because we actually don’t even call it separation anymore. We say, ‘Let’s just do 30 days of self-reflection time. You get to focus on you, I get to focus on me. We’ll continue to do couples’ therapy,” Tyler explained on US Weekly‘s Watch With Us podcast in Dec. 2018, while he was still expecting a third baby with Catelynn. He added, “When you say ‘separation,’ everyone’s like, ‘Oh my god, a separation?’ It’s not like we’re seeing other people or we’re not talking at all or not spending time with each other.”
The Trial Separation Improves The Marriage
(Photo Credit: MTV)
Catelynn happily revealed that she and Tyler were “in a really good place” in an interview with E! News, after the trial separation had ended. “Him and I, when we went through that trial separation period or whatever, we worked a lot on ourselves as individuals, but also ourselves as a couple. I learned a lot of things for myself during that period of time in my life,” Catelynn admitted.
Baby No. 3 Arrives
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After the trial separation was completed, Catelynn and Tyler also celebrated with the arrival of their third baby — a girl named Vaeda — in Feb. 2019. The rest of the year was just as happy for Catelynn and Tyler, who were still a strong unit.
Catelynn Suffers Another Miscarriage
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Catelynn sadly experienced her second miscarriage over the Thanksgiving holiday in 2020, which she revealed in a heartbreaking interview a few weeks later. “About 3 days before Thanksgiving we found out we were expecting. We were soooo excited! We didn’t tell Nova [Catelynn and Tyler’s daughter] because we wanted to wait a while. I took like 6 different pregnancy tests to make sure!,” Catelynn told Champion Daily.
But the happiness was short-lived, sadly. “On thanksgiving 2020 I started bleeding. No matter what, I believe that when a woman sees a positive test you automatically start getting excited… all of that came crashing down,” Catelynn revealed, adding, “We lost the baby. I was overwhelmed by sadness and felt my emotions.” However, Catelynn admitted that the “mental health work” that she previously did had a “huge impact” on her grieving, since she wasn’t “overcome by anxiety” this time.
Sourse: hollywoodlife.com
