Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers for Season 7 of Unexpected.
TLC recently revealed the cast for the upcoming season of Unexpected, leaving many fans of the show shocked to learn that one of the couples includes a 13-year-old dad-to-be. According to Starcasm, though, the story is even more shocking, as the timeline of the couple’s pregnancy has revealed that the couple actually conceived their child when the father-to-be was only 12!
As viewers saw in the newly released trailer, ‘Unexpected’ newcomers Bella and Hunter of Arkansas are listed as 15 and 13 years old, respectively, though this reflects the ages the two were when the confessional interviews for Season 7 were filmed, NOT the age at which they were when they conceived their baby.
As it turns out, Bella had previously shared on TikTok that she found out she was pregnant in July of 2024 and according to Starcasm, the teen mom also posted a sonogram from December of 2024 to Facebook, which indicated that she had likely conceived in June of that year.
According to multiple social media posts by the young couple’s family, Hunter was born in July of 2011, meaning that he was only 12 years old when Bella became pregnant. This also means that Bella, who was reportedly born in January of 2010, was just 14 years old at the time they conceived their son, Wesley.
As it was mentioned in the Season 7 trailer, Hunter was in 8th grade when he and Bella filmed for ‘Unexpected,’ while Bella was a freshman in high school. A social media post by Bella’s mom in October revealed that the young parents actually began dating when Hunter was in 7th grade and Bella was in 8th grade, with Bella posting similar throwbacks of the two on TikTok.
(The post by Bella’s mom in October also confirms that Hunter did advance to the 9th grade and wasn’t required to repeat the 8th grade, as Bella feared he may have to do in the Season 7 trailer.)
In January of 2025, Bella posted a mirror pic of her and Hunter to TikTok, while reminding social media followers how the two were when they began their relationship.
“We fell in love at 11 and 12 and this year we are turning 14 and 15, let that sink in,” she wrote.
View this post on Instagram
Bella also seems to reveal in a TikTok from that same month that while she and Hunter are each other’s “first love,” Hunter had been with other girls before her, despite being very (VERY) young at the time.
“No revenge because even though I wasn’t his FIRST love, I am his first LOVE,” she wrote.
Bella and Hunter welcomed their son Wes in March and according to their social media activity, the two appear to be going strong.
In posts to TikTok and Facebook, Bella’s mother revealed that Bella’s sister, Emi, is also a teen mom. In fact, she gave birth to her daughter about six weeks after Bella had Wes.
Season 7 of ‘Unexpected’ premieres Monday, February 16 on TLC. Click here for details on the other cast members joining Bella and Hunter on the upcoming season.
RELATED STORY: Former ‘Unexpected’ Star Rilah Ferrer Reveals She & Boyfriend Are Expecting First Child Together
(Photos: TikTok; TLC)
49 Responses
I’m not really one to speak on becoming a parent as a teen because I myself was a teenage parent, but I had turned 18 by the time I had my child. Still extremely young, but even becoming a parent at 18 is vastly different than becoming a parent at 13. I at least could drive, get a job, provide to the best of my ability. At 13 you don’t have access to those privileges and it really hinders the kind of life you can provide. You would have no choice but to rely on others. Gosh, I couldn’t even imagine. Just the thought of becoming a parent at that age makes me shudder, it scared the shit out of me becoming a parent at 18.
Parents need to be looked at because this is both disgusting and heartbreaking. My son is 11 and I can’t imagine him living a life like this. Parents need to be held accountable for shit. Her sister gave birth after her and the mom is proud? Fucking gross.
My aunt thought I was crazy for suggesting my 14 year old cousin get an IUD. She was actually pissed that I thought she was sexually active. She’s due to give birth on March 16th. Two weeks shy of her 15th birthday.
The same happened to me stepsister. Her mother was very offended when her other daughter suggested she should see a gynecologist considering she was sharing a bed with her 21 year old boyfriend. She gave birth at 13.
The 21 year old boyfriend can be charged with statutory rape for this.
This show is part of an agenda to normalize dysfunction. Same as TM, which glorified teen pregnancy rather than discouraging it. As planned. There were even high schools where groups of girls collectively planned to get pregnant based on that show.
if it were a 12-13 year old girl that was pregnant by a 15-16 year old boy, there would be outrage. since the genders are reversed , it’s a tv show. fucking disgusting.
You must have missed 16 and pregnant, when every boy was an adult and nobody cared
Also, he was in 7th grade and she was in 8th. They’re like 1.5 years apart.
As much as that show reallly glossed over some stuff, it wasn’t all “I’m sorry, your 16-year-old girlfriend is pregnant and you’ve been a diesel mechanic for how long?!”
“18 years old and out of high school at time of birth” not infrequently meant “17 and high school senior at time of conception”. 🤷🏻♀️
Andrew was like 23 and Jenelle 16 when Jace was born, Ryan was like 20 and Maci was 16 when Bentley was born, and amber was 18 and Gary was like 22.
Pretty sure the rest were age appropriate, but regardless, the last stat I saw was that men between the ages of 20 and 29 father like 40% of the children born to moms that are age 15. Yet it’s seen as a teenage mother problem, not a grown man problem.
Maci and Ryan were who I was alluding to. 😂
There’s something very wrong in upbringing of all of these kids (BOTH daughters teen moms…really?!) if they got kids so young. And if the kids weren’t taught what happened is wrong, poor Wes might continue on this cycle.
Judging by her moms insta, she seems proud and happy to be a grandma and to be on TV. Far too happy…. Call CPS!
Probably not CPS-worthy, but she sounds like a Mama Dawn type. If I recall correctly, in Leah’s book she stated her mom practically encouraged Leah to be a sexually active teen.
Insanely sad! This should not be on TV and CPS really needs to look in to their familys. Especially hers, how old is her sister who also has a baby? Great parents….This is child abuse.
This should NOT be on tv. So an older kid abused a kid 3-4 years younger? And since its a boy victim we will what ignore it? This is beyond disturbing.
Can you read? They’re like a year and a half apart, and he was in 7th and she was in 8th. Not sure where in the world yall are getting 3-4 years. It clearly says she was 14 and he was 12 when the baby was conceived, him in 7th grade and her in 8th
Kids these ages are going to experiment with their new-found sexuality. And no man under the age of 94 is going to turn sex down. We all know this. But putting a preteen who got his girlfriend pregnant on national television is just a terrible idea. “Look Mom! They had sex at my age, got pregnant and now they’re getting paid for it!” Like, no. So many people in this situation should have done better.
I think it was Mack who admitted she got pregnant to be on the show. Maybe it was another 16&p girl but I think it was Mack. So yeah, this show is just a continuation of that. It’s disturbing the teen kids are getting younger.
That is a pretty sexist take on men, they actually do turn down sex just like women and also can be raped when they don’t consent. Obviously this isn’t the case with these two. TLC probably did this for shock value which is on par with TLC code of ethics with all the problematic content they put out. The parents are the biggest letdown, like that is crazy that their daughters are both teen mom and had their baby six weeks apart.
This is gross. This shouldn’t be on tv. The parents of these “teens” need investigating.
I used to live in a town of about 8k people and I worked with a youth program there. A few months before I moved, a mom came in to ask about services for her 13yr old daughter who was pregnant by an 11yr old kid who wanted to name his kid (literally no shit here) Kickflip Oreo.
I don’t care how much support a kid has from their parents, that is FAR too young to be a parent. 16 feels too young to be a parent and I’m the child of teen parents.
Still a better name than other choices lol I wonder if they really named the kid that
This is just disgusting and ALL of their parents should be in jail for chil neglect
I definitely think parents nowadays are more ok with their kids having sex young. I don’t know them personally but on reddit like the parenting sub shows that a lot of parents are like, well they are going to do it. But yea, but they need to know what can happen. They do not need to be having sex until their late teens. I wish more kids weren’t pressured to do it. I don’t think the parents should get in trouble for child neglect tho, a bit extreme in my opinion.
Her parents have 2 teen daughters getting pregnant. Obviously they were negligent at teaching them how NOT to get pregnant.
The same goes for his parents. What kind of kid is sexually active at 11??? That’s absolutely negligent and not normal at all. Obviously they didn’t teach him how to NOT impregnate someone either.
Yeah; there’s nothing wrong with an 8th grade girl having a 7th grade boyfriend. I think we all did that. But them having a BABY is bonkers. The parents should be paying for the care of this child for 18 years since they are squarely responsible for this situation (BOTH parents)
There are some places where the parents are on the hook until the kid is 18. This is beyond absurd that a child this young is having sex. Apparently it isn’t that odd though. Which is sad. I learned this when I took my daughter to pp for bc. My mom had me just after her 17th birthday and life was terrible. I had my oldest at 20. I look at my 22 year old son and I feel like he is still too young. I had a 2 year old by his age. It’s crazy. This whole situation is just gross imo.
This is ridiculous. I wouldn’t leave a hamster in the care of a 13 year old. If the family tradition keeps up they can be grandparents in their mid twenties and great grandparents by 40.
This actually happened to my aunt. She had her son at thirteen, and when he was fourteen he got a girl pregnant, making her a grandma at 27. By 45 she was a great-grandmother (and the mother of a two year old). It’s such an unfortunate cycle to be in, and a really hard one to break
shame on them and their parents. TRASH TRASH TRASH
My sister in laws told my niece that she needs to watch the way she sits, like posture wise so the boys will think she is a nice girl and attract good boys. Like she is 13, why are you talking about that? This was my husband’s sister and the other sister in law is the girls mom, my husband’s brothers kid. Like gross. Let them be 13
Ugh, that’s just disturbing. I don’t understand why we are still feeding girls stereotypes (I was a very non-stereotypical girl and I was bullied for it….) in disguise that we are “helping them”. Just let a girl be a girl, let her burp and do whatever she wants, the right guy (or girl! I can’t imagine how lesbians feel hearing this) will like you just the way you are.
The smartest thing she’s done is only limit her comments on Tiktok to people who is mutual friends with her, cause they’d be tearing her up in the comments otherwise. And the comments are insane anyways but I guess it’s either be supportive or she’ll delete comments.
This is child neglect. This is not comparable to a 16 or 17 year old having an accidental pregnancy. A 12/13 year old is a baby. This is not okay and not acceptable to have on tv. The parents need to be arrested.
I’m sorry… They’ve been together since he was ELEVEN and she wasn’t his first? WHAT?! It keeps getting worse!
I’m hoping the meant that he had other “girlfriends” before her, not that he wasn’t a virgin… I thought most little boys wouldn’t even have gone through puberty by that age
This should not be airing. I feel icky reading this article.
Where in the hell are the parents when a 12 year old is having sex????
[Insert Barbie disgusted face meme]
What… the fuck.
I’m sorry but a 14 and 15 year old shouldn’t be raising a baby. That is insane. There is no possible way that they are going to be good and effective parents. Their brains aren’t even going to be fully developed for at least a decade. It’s not fair to them or the baby.
This should be called “The results of Poor Parenting”, these were underage babies having babies.
Neglectful parenting led to this.
There should not be a show glamourising underage sex and parenting- they should have a show holding parents accountable for this instead.
💯 It is implied that Hunter had sex before being with Bella. So he lost his virginity at 11 or younger?!?! Absolutely piss poor parenting. Who is his mom, Janelle? If his mom was a teen mom too, then she could be a grandma still in her 20’s! Impossible not to judge.
It says her teenage sister had a baby right after she did, so clearly no parenting is being done in that house.
At what point do we stop giving TLC views? (Admittedly I’ve never seen this show, 16 and Pregnant was enough for me) This is actually disturbing that they would even accept this story and adding in these *sisters* were pregnant at the same time?! Where are the parents??
12 and 13 year olds having babies are not something I’d ever want to see on TV.
What happened to “The Learning Channel” its become worse than anything MTV ever came up with.
The only “learning” from TLC channels is learning about messy, trashy people or t trying to normalize grifting fundie families who breed like rabbits. Its sole purpose is for gawking and the audience feeling better about their own lives which aren’t as dysfunctional as the characters in their shows.
I can’t explain exactly why, but 16&preg didn’t feel as gross as Unexpected.
No you’re right it didn’t, and maybe because when it originally aired we were around the same age as the OG girls? Like I’m a year or 2 older than Amber, so it was my peer group?
But this shit is vile. As a parent to an almost 11 year old the *idea* of sexual activity at that age makes me feel physically ill.