In the wake of Breaking Amish star Rebecca Byler's shocking admission that she's the mother of an infant daughter -- and was married before tying the knot on the show -- her new husband Abe Schmucker has a message for fans of the TLC series: Leave our family alone!
Chatting with NBC's Michelle Beadle on part two of Breaking Amish: The Shunning Truth reunion special airing Sunday, Byler gets defensive when asked to address rumors that she and Schmucker dated before moving from Lancaster, Penn., to New York City and getting married.
Abe and Rebecca
Credit: TLC
"[Fans] can believe whatever they want, but if they want to know, they can watch the show. If they don't want to believe, they don't have to believe it," she snaps in a tense preview clip from the reunion, which became TLC's most-watched 2012 show to date, drawing 3.9 million viewers. "That's my opinion. I don't give a s--t what anybody thinks. People have to discuss our lives so much that we can't even have our own life anymore. They're making us out to be somebody I don't even know."
Playing Devil's advocate, costar Sabrina High reasoned that the it was inevitable for rumors to swirl about the couple, who lived and attended church in the same area. "God knows, if me and Jeremiah were in the same community, [fans] would be hooking us up, too," High said, referring to pal Jeremiah Raber.
As the group collectively defends Byler without directly addressing her past history with Schmucker, Byler's new husband takes special offense to the fact that fans continue to clamor for the so-called real story about Byler's daughter.
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"That's what upsets me -- like Rebecca said, that's her daughter. People are talking about [the baby and] people that had nothing to do with the show. Involving family that does not need to be involved -- that are going to have their lives ruined for what we're doing," Abe fumes. "That's what aggravates me."
Breaking Amish: The Shunning Truth - Part Two airs Nov. 18 at 10 p.m. (EST) on TLC.
