15-year-old Bella Vaughn is bracing for motherhood with a boyfriend who was just 12 years old when their baby was conceived, and her father is making it clear the family is profiting from the backlash.
The Arkansas teen and her now 13-year-old boyfriend, Hunter, are featured in the new season of the TV documentary series Unexpected, which follows teenage parents as they navigate the challenges of teen pregnancy.
Highlights
- Viewers accused Bella’s parents of cashing in on her pregnancy and turning it into content.
- Kris Vaughn brushed off the backlash, mocked critics, and said the outrage will boost Season 7 and his payout.
- Bella defended her parents as supportive and insisted she did nothing illegal, saying the relationship was consensual.
But instead of focusing only on the show itself, much of the online conversation is centered around the couple’s ages and the role Bella’s parents have played in putting their daughter’s story on television and social media.
“The dad saying his pockets will be fat with cash,” a reader wrote. “It’s an utter disgrace.”
The father of a 15-year-old girl who became pregnant bragged online about the money he’s making from a documentary about his daughter
Image credits: _izabellavaughn
Viewers have accused the adults in Bella’s life of cashing in on a situation involving two minors.
“They are absolutely using their 15-year-old daughter for money and internet fame,” one user wrote.
Others have argued the show turns underage pregnancy into a spectacle and risks making it seem glamorous, especially when it markets the couple like a bingeable teen-romance plot.
Image credits: TLC
Bella’s father, Kris Vaughn, has responded by leaning into the outrage, openly mocking critics and gloating about the money his family is making from the documentary deal.
In a TikTok video uploaded last Sunday (January 25), he dismissed the backlash as free promotion, claimed online “trolls” were only drawing more attention to the show, and suggested the criticism would make Season 7 a bigger hit.
Image credits: _izabellavaughn
He also mocked women criticizing the family with the crude label of “the unscrewables,” going as far as to say he would use it on TV.
Vaughn then argued that the outrage was turning his family into “stars” and said he expected to profit from it.
“All [the critics] are doing is making us the stars of the show, and I got to tell y’all, my royalty check is going to be so fat,” he added.
Bella defended her parents from the criticism, saying they’ve been supportive and hands-on throughout her pregnancy
Image credits: _izabellavaughn
Bella herself has also come to her parents’ defense, pushing back on the idea that her pregnancy is proof they failed her or neglected their responsibilities.
As criticism mounted online accusing her family of exploiting the situation, she has repeatedly framed her parents as the reason she’s even able to function day to day while raising a child at her age.
Image credits: _izabellavaughn
“They have done everything for me,” she said.
“They support, they take care of me, they help me take care of my kid because I am a teen. I can’t do every single thing right now, but they support me in every single way.”
Image credits: _izabellavaughn
At the same time, Bella argued that teenage pregnancy does not automatically equal bad parenting, insisting the decision to have intimacy was hers and that she understood what she was doing.
“It’s not a parenting issue when a teen gets pregnant always,” she said, adding that she “knew right from wrong” when it came to having relations at such a young age.
Some critics have accused Bella of taking advantage of her boyfriend, who was 12 when she got pregnant
Image credits: _izabellavaughn
The most explosive part of the discussion has been the age gap and the legal questions people have thrown at her. Bella has publicly addressed calls for “legal consequences,” particularly from critics who claim she committed a crime.
“Just because he was 12 [when he got me pregnant], he turned 13 a few days later!” she said, insisting Hunter “was s**ually ready faster than I was, and that’s OK.”
“You can all stop saying it was illegal and that I r**ed him,” Bella said. “Because I didn’t. It was consensual on both sides… we have already talked to the cops about it. It was consensual.”
Image credits: _izabellavaughn
Another line of criticism has claimed she “ruined the boy’s life” by making him a father at 13.
Bella’s response has been to present the relationship as a decision they faced together after she found out she was pregnant.
“I did not ruin Hunter’s life,” she said, adding that once she learned she was pregnant she gave him a choice about whether to stay involved.
She described telling him she understood how young they both were and that she could raise the baby on her own if he wasn’t ready, making clear that the decision to remain in the child’s life was his to make.
Some online empathized with the situation the teens find themselves in
Image credits: _izabellavaughn
Some viewers have shared personal anecdotes to argue the situation is shocking, but not unheard of.
“It isn’t common in my area, but it does happen. When I was a teacher in Illinois, I had a 15-year-old student who became pregnant by a 12-year-old boy. That child is now a freshman in high school,” one person wrote.
Image credits: _izabellavaughn
Others argued that punishment is pointless now that the pregnancy is real and a baby is involved.
“It’s up to the parents now to step up and look after these kids. There’s no point in punishing them. What’s done is done. Support them,” a reader wrote.
“Honestly, they’re both children,” another added. “However, if both of their families are willing to help raise them successfully, and sufficiently, who are we to judge them!”
"What's done is done." Netizens shared their thoughts about the documentary on social media
