A lot of Teen Mom fans really, really love Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra.
And that’s fair enough — they have quite the love story.
Catelynn and Tyler began dating all the way back in the seventh grade, when they were just 12 years old.
Forget “high school sweethearts,” because these two have been kicking it since middle school!
If you have been following this couple for all these years, then you know that they both had exceptionally difficult home lives back then.
Tyler’s father, Butch, was in and out of prison and struggling with addiction — he was also shown to be abusive towards his romantic partners …
… One of those partners being Catelynn’s mother, April, who had her own problems with addiction.
Yep, Butch and April got married after Catelynn and Tyler started dating, and it was pretty much just one big toxic disaster.
When Catelynn became pregnant at 16, their parents immediately began trying to pressure her into raising the baby, even though both she and Tyler had some serious reservations.
In the end, when they officially decided to place their child for adoption, Butch and April treated them horribly, and while Butch went off to prison here and there, April stayed to verbally abuse Catelynn for a good long while.
There were a good few seasons of Catelynn and Tyler trying to cope with their traumatic upbringings and the difficult feelings that arose from their choice to place little Carly for adoption, but eventually things seemed to settle a bit.
She became pregnant again and in 2015 they welcomed another baby girl, Nova, and later that year they finally got married.
More bad times were ahead though — she’d been dealing with postpartum depression and it went mostly untreated until she had to go to a treatment center over a year after giving birth.
A couple of years after that, she became pregnant again but suffered a miscarriage, then she became so depressed that she contemplated suicide and had to visit a treatment center once again.
After six weeks of inpatient therapy, she returned home only to leave once more for the same treatment center — she was gone another six weeks, and this put a huge strain on her marriage.
She and Tyler almost split up during this time, even though — surprise! — she became pregnant again and was gearing up to have their third child!
Thankfully, just before they welcomed Vaeda in February of 2019, they reconciled, and ever since then they’ve appeared to be stronger than ever.
Which is good news, because just a couple of months ago, they brought home another baby.
So these days, Catelynn and Tyler are living the life up in Michigan with their three adorable daughters, and according to what they’re saying in this new interview, they couldn’t possibly be happier!
While speaking with HollywoodLife, the couple was asked about how they kept their relationship going after so many years together, and Tyler joked “I feel like that’s one of the reasons I love working out. You gotta keep it looking good!”
Catelynn was a bit more candid with her answer, admitting that their marriage is “a lot of hard work.”
Tyler added that they’ve “done a pretty good job” of figuring out how to be good partners for each other, explaining “It’s one of those things where we ask the other person, ‘Here’s my need. Can you provide it or not?'”
“And sometimes they can, sometimes they can’t so communication is huge, definitely.”
Catelynn interjected with “I mean, I feel like we’re just also really good friends on top of being partners and parents to these children, and so yeah, I think that also helps a lot too.”
And then, in an incredibly sweet moment, she said “And then honestly I truly do believe in soulmates. I believe that souls are meant to come together in life to really learn from each other and grow with each other.”
If that’s Cate’s definition of a soulmate, then that’s certainly what she and Tyler are, right?
It’s hard to think of another reality TV couple that’s grown together as much as they have, and it sounds like they’re ready to keep working at it for the rest of their lives.
Don’t you just love them?