Amber Portwood Details How She Navigated Her Then-Fiancé Gary Wayt’s Disappearance

Amber Portwood is revealing the aftermath of her ex-fiancé’s disappearance in June.

In a sneak peek at the season finale of Teen Mom: Next Chapter, Maci Bookout McKinney went to support Amber after her then-fiancé Gary Wayt had gone missing from where they were staying in North Carolina on June 9, 2024. In the clip, Maci called castmate Catelynn Baltierra to update her on Amber’s condition.

“Amber’s inside,” Maci said on the phone. “If you just saw the state that she’s in right now, it’s beyond. It’s so bad, and I feel so terrible for her. We did call the chief of police today and he basically was like, ‘You’ve done everything you can to help us here, but you just need to go home and get some rest.'”

“She’s not in a headspace that I feel is safe for driving,” Maci continued. “I’m driving her to Knoxville because it’s on her way home and then MTV is gonna drive her the rest of the way.”

Catelynn then told Maci, “I love you guys,” before hanging up the phone. The next scene showed Maci in the car and Amber climbing into the passenger seat. “It’s okay, babe,” Maci said as the 16 and Pregnant alum began to sob.

“So many days, I just didn’t even know if he was alive or not,” Amber told Maci through her tears.

“But he is,” Maci reassured her, referring to reports that Wayt had been spotted that day. 

“To even know that, like, 1 a.m. he was in New Mexico makes me feel so much better,” Amber continued.

Just days after that episode was filmed, Wayt was found safe in Oklahoma, 900 miles from where he first went missing. 

“Gary Wayt has been located,” the Bryson City Police Department in North Carolina wrote on Facebook on June 14. “No further information available at this time.”

On June 11, Amber filed a missing persons report after Wayt never returned after two days away from their hotel in North Carolina. She claimed at the time that they had a “discussion” that night but it “was not a big blowout fight or anything like that.”

“Nobody was heated or anything, it was emotional because it had something to do with the fact of his parents being Vietnamese and me being who I am,” Amber said in a YouTube livestream. “He was very upset about this, I was upset. We do not yell at each other, we do not hurt each other.”

“We are very in love. This man asked me to be with him, this man then asked me to marry him,” she added.

She said Wayt then took off with his keys and wallet, but left behind his phone, and never came back. Calling the situation “a huge deal,” Amber expressed her concern for Wayt.

“His parents, everybody is very worried. I am worried,” she said on YouTube. “We are very scared right now.”

One week after he was found by police, Wayt and the reality star called off their engagement. 

Teen Mom: The Next Chapter is available to stream on Paramount+.