Late ’16 and Pregnant’ Alum Valerie Fairman’s Daughter Nevaeh Is Coping Well After Her Death

The Teen Mom family was rocked back in 2016 after 16 and Pregnant star Valerie Fairman had died of a drug overdose. Now, Valerie’s adoptive mother Janice recently opened up about Valerie’s death and revealed that she’s doing everything she can to help Valerie’s daughter Nevaeh Lynn deal with the grief of her mother’s death.

“Nevaeh is very well,” Janice told Radar. “I don’t think it’s been hard for her. I don’t know if it will be in the coming years. She’s doing well in school. I took her to a grief counselor, which she didn’t need.”

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Aside from talking about Valerie often, Janice said that the family tries to keep Valerie’s memory alive in other sentimental ways, too. “[Nevaeh] has a necklace with some of her ashes,” Janice added. “Ashes are in her play room too. She also has flowers from the service.”

The late 23-year-old reality star’s teenage pregnancy was documented on MTV and she was a part of the same season of 16 & Pregnant as the Teen Mom 2 girls — Leah Messer, Chelsea Houska, Jenelle Evans, and Kailyn Lowry. At the time of Valerie’s death, she was in Pennsylvania, visiting friends. In her home state of Delaware, Valerie was not living in the same home as Nevaeh or Janice, which is why Janice thinks that Nevaeh is able to cope with her mom’s death. “Because her mom wasn’t living here at the time, it made it easier on her. She’s still in the house she’s grown up in,” Janice continued.

In fact, it’s unclear where Valerie was living at the time of her death. In 2015, she was arrested for prostitution in New Castle, Delaware, where cops found her and six other women streetwalking. It was hardly her first struggle with the law — Valerie was arrested in 2011 for allegedly physically abusing her adoptive mother. In 2012, she was charged with theft. According to Janice, Valerie had been in and out of rehab centers for five years before her eventual demise.

Janice encouraged fans to remember Valerie as a “loving and caring person,” saying, “I know she was into drugs and wasn’t so nice, but in her heart, she really was.”

Though Nevaeh’s mom has passed and her grandmother, Janice, remains in custody, there is still one parent in the picture: Nevaeh’s dad Matt Pryce. “He sees her every Saturday,” Janice revealed. “We try to keep Matt involved. He has his own problems. She doesn’t always [want to see him]. We try and rearrange things so she doesn’t miss out on birthday parties and other activities.”

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Valerie was found unresponsive in a bathroom in Pennsylvania on Dec. 21, 2016 after a friend broke down the door. Valerie’s birth mother, Beth Shepherd, has gone on record saying she believes she knows which drug Valerie overdosed on. “I think it was pink,” Beth has said, referencing a synthetic drug thought to believed several times stronger than heroin and often found in rural American towns.

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