Gary Shirley From 'Teen Mom' Is a Family Man Above All Else, but He Has a Real Job Too

Everyone who is regularly featured on a show in the Teen Mom franchise is on MTV's payroll in some way. The same goes for Gary Shirley, who first appeared on 16 & Pregnant with Amber Portwood when they welcomed their daughter, Leah Shirley. But, years after Gary and Amber split and they've both grown up (well, mostly, anyway), what is Gary's job outside of Teen Mom?

Over the years, Gary has shared part of his private life with viewers. But, for the most part, he tends to try and keep things as normal as possible for him, his wife Kristina Shirley, and their kids. That includes Leah, who has shared on Teen Mom: The Next Chapter that her friends are starting to realize she has been on reality TV her entire life. But, thanks to Gary's career choices outside of reality TV, he appears to have set up a more grounded life for his family.

It looks like Gary might be in the real estate rental business. In 2021, The U.S. Sun reported that, at the time, Gary owned multiple properties. According to the outlet, Gary also bought two plots of land. It's possible that Gary earns passive income by renting out homes, but he has dabbled in other career fields that have nothing to do with being a reality TV star.

In 2019, Gary's wife Kristina shared an Instagram post about Gary being sworn in as a local police officer. At the time, Teen Mom fans believed that was his primary job, and they applauded the former teen dad for following a goal and sticking with it to have a commendable job in law enforcement.

But since then, he hasn't mentioned it much, and some Teen Mom fans have claimed that Gary isn't an official officer licensed to carry a firearm and arrest criminals. Instead, according to some, he is a volunteer police officer in his town. On a Reddit thread about Gary becoming a police officer, one fan commented that, at some point, Amber claimed Gary was no longer in the field.

Gary and Kristina have shown Teen Mom viewers that they have every intention of keeping things "normal" for their children when it comes to filming. But, because of Gary's custody agreement with Amber, they do have to film when Amber films because of her visits with Leah. Gary and Amber haven't openly discussed their custody agreement much, but at one point, Gary had full custody of Leah.

Now, it looks like Amber visits with Leah at Gary's home, but since it has been quite a long time since Amber had Leah at her home for daytime or overnight visits, at least according to Gary on the show, it appears that Gary maintains custody of Leah for the majority of the time.