Breaking Amish: Jeremiah Raber’s Ex-Wife Naomi Stutzman Says “This Show Is Fake”
September 26, 2012 by Hollywoodite
It’s become so apparent that everything on Breaking Amish is fake except the cast’s names that TLC issued a statement admitting “some of the claims are true… they will be addressed in upcoming episodes.”
Some of the cast have kids together, some have kids with other people, at least one of the cast is married, one is divorced, two have been arrested for offenses involving alcohol, and one person left the Amish 14-years-ago. It’s contrived, staged drama. It’s not a reality show. The only thing is, most of the cast aren’t actors. Some of their extended “family,” however,” allegedly are being played by actors.
It’s a mess, only three episodes in. And yet the show is consistently getting three-million viewers each week. And the more controversy over the show’s charade, the more people are watching.
On the most recent episode, cussing-drinking-driving divorced-father-of-three Jeremiah Raber gets a tattoo of his three kids’ names without admitting they’re his kids’ names.
In the same episode, the 32-year-old, who’s been outside of the community since he was 18-years-old, pretends he’s fulfilling a lifelong desire to drive. Raber even pretends not to know how to drive. There’s proof, however, from a deleted-but-cached MySpace photo from 2007, that he’s owned a car; specifically, a red Ford pickup. He knows how to drive, and he’s already owned (at least one) car. He lied on the show.
Moreover, says Raber’s ex-wife, to whom he was married for six years and she’s the mother of his three children (ages 7, 5, and 3), Raber has owned several cars that were purchased by his parents who did not shun him when he left. Shunning isn’t even uniformly practiced by the Amish, since the different groups have their own rules. The suggestion that leaving means shunning, and that shunning is unequivocal in all instances, is a complete lie too.
The ex-wife, Naomi Stutzman (formerly Naomi Raber), who may have an agenda because she was beaten during the marriage and Raber owed $20,000 in back-child support (some of which, she says, was paid for by TLC although she could mean Raber’s paychecks from TLC reduced the arrears), spoke with a local news crew. TLC allegedly heard about the possible on-camera interview, right after which Stutzman went radio silent. The news show explains: “When TLC found out CBS 21 was trying to set up an on-camera interview with her, she said TLC offered her ‘whatever she wanted’ to stay quiet. Now she won’t return calls or emails.”
CBS 21 was left reading out her statements. Here’s the video.
When CBS 21 was in contact with Stutzman, she told them the following: “This show is fake.”
Explaining Raber’s “driving lessons” and aspirations to drive “for the first time” on the show, Stutzman explains: ”It’s so untrue. Jeremiah’s mom and dad bought him two cars to help him out when he left the Amish. He was never shunned. He was spoiled rotten.”
Stutzman continues: “Whenever we needed money for rent he’d go crying to his mom and she would pay our rent. I was Amish and left. I was not shunned. It’s different in different communities. The Amish community is upset with him because the stuff is not true in real life. My family is livid because they took him in and cared for him, now he is doing this? I’m not surprised at him. What surprised me was TLC. My kids and I watch TLC. They are supposed to be a family channel. For them to do this is appalling. The kids and I suffered for years at the hands of this man. We went through multiple things.” By “multiple things,” she’s presumably referring to domestic violence, her filing for divorce, and the fight for child custody and child support.
