Karley of '16 and Pregnant' Is Grateful Her Twins Have Each Other

If you’re a reality junkie, you might be curious to know where Karley from 16 and Pregnant is now. After all, Karley Deatherage was one of the few mothers of twins on the MTV series.

As her Season 5 episode detailed, Karley was a 17-year-old student from Utah who married beau Tony Shipley after finding out that they were expecting. She gave birth prematurely, welcoming daughters Amariah Dawn and Amayah Lynn Shipley on Nov. 14, 2013. That episode also chronicled the drama between Karley and Tony, including his unhappiness living with Karley’s family and her frustration that he bought a pick-up truck instead of a more family-friendly vehicle.

Six months after the episode aired, Karley revealed that she and Tony had split. And in March 2020, she offered an update on her life as a single mom in an episode of the Anything But Good podcast, revealing that she was working full-time and that her kindergarten-age girls were practically joined at the hip.

“I do like the fact that they have that one constant,” she said. “Me and their dad aren’t together, so sometimes I have to leave them for work, or [their dad] has to leave them for work, but they always have that one constant with each other. They always have the comfort of their sister, and they’re totally inseparable. They can’t do anything without each other. I like that I don’t have to feel guilty, although I still feel guilty about leaving them. Mom guilt is a real thing. At least they always have someone there that they’re truly comfortable with.”

At the time, Karley had no plan on expanding the family: “That’s the good thing about having twins, is that I never want any more kids, so I don’t feel bad about them being an only child. They have a sibling and I don’t have to feel bad about not giving them another one.”

Karley revealed on the podcast that she was single by choice. “Any time I’m not working, I want to spend that free time with my daughters,” she said, per The Ashley’s Reality Roundup. “I just don’t feel the need for a relationship right now, and I’ve been doing things on my own for so f--king long I don’t even know if I would know how to do a relationship at this point. Maybe one day, who knows? But I don’t need it.”

She went on: “I’m focused on my girls. I don’t really have it in me to commit to a person seriously enough … If I’m just casually dating, I’m not going to bring some guy around my daughters … I feel like I’d have to be with someone, like, three years before I’d let them meet my kids.”

Karley told listeners that 16 and Pregnant wasn’t staged but that producers of the MTV reality show knew how to elicit emotions. “They pay very good attention to you, they study you,” she said. “They know what sets you off, and so they will have you talk about certain things that they know they’re going to get a reaction out of you. I do know that it always frustrated them [that I was] very even-tempered the entire episode, because I didn’t want to look like a f--king idiot on TV.”

It was a different story with Tony, as Karley explained: “My daughters’ dad, however, they knew exactly what to bring up so that he would give them a reaction. They have f--king views to get … If they didn’t get enough information, or they didn’t get the reaction that they wanted [they’d do the scene] over and over again. It got so annoying!”

Even now, years after her 16 and Pregnant episode aired, Karley still gets recognized. “There’s been a few times that people have recognized me at work,” she said. “Actually, my boss recently just found out I was on the show and he won’t stop calling me a celebrity! I told him that if anyone asks what show I was on, to tell them Law & Order or Grey’s Anatomy or something like that! Don’t throw out Teen Mom!”