Teen Mom 2 alum Kailyn Lowry revealed her estranged father, Raymond Lowry, has entered hospice care.
“I have a small update for anyone who cares. I am joining the dead dads club,” Kailyn, 33, said on the Tuesday, July 29, episode of her “Karma and Chaos” podcast. “Raymond has COPD, stage IV.”
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a chronic lung condition caused by damage to the organ, according to the Mayo Clinic. The tissue damage results in swelling and inflammation within the lung, which limits airflow.
According to Kailyn, she somewhat feels like a member of the “dead dads club” already, since she is not close to Raymond.
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“He’s deadbeat, so now he’s minus the ‘beat,’” Kailyn said. “I feel conflicted. It’s layered. It was sent to me in the weirdest way. I sent my cousin money for something, and her sister was like, ‘Don’t send her money.’ Then, she told my aunt, [who] is my dad’s sister. My dad’s sister sent me a message, ‘I know your heart was in the right place, but don’t do that.’ In the same message, [she said], ‘Just an FYI, your father has stage IV COPD. He’s on hospice.’ It was all the same message.”
She continued, “It’s layered in that, obviously, I don’t have a relationship with him and never did, but I feel like I didn’t ever get the answers I’ve been looking for.”
Kailyn last reached out to Raymond in 2019, asking whether he would take a DNA test.
“He told me he would, and then I sent him one and he refused to take it,” she claimed. “I feel like, ‘You don’t get to die without answering all the questions that I have.’ I want to know why he left, I want to know why he didn’t try harder, I want to know why he gave up [and] I want to know why he didn’t just do it to me but turned around and did the same thing to my sister. I feel like my sister never really had answers.”
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Kailyn noted that she feels that Raymond “owes both of us explanations” about his decision to leave their family.
“I’m mad at him,” the MTV alum said. “I also never got to meet any of my siblings from the Philippines. I know that will never happen. … I don’t know if [Raymond knows them], but he didn’t try for them either. Like, I need answers. I don’t know how someone walks through this earth and does the bare minimum to get by in life. You procreated multiple times, and you don’t care? I just want to know where your head is at.”
In a bid for closure, Kailyn also revealed her plans to visit Raymond while he’s in hospice.
“I think I’m going to go see him,” Kailyn said on Tuesday’s episode. “The first and last time I saw him was [in] 2009. I was 17, and I was pregnant. My sister’s conflicted … [but she told me that she] would go to his funeral.”
After Kailyn’s dad left, she was raised by a single mother, Suzi Irwin, but moved out after getting pregnant at the age of 16. Kailyn, who now has seven children with various past partners, and her mother are currently estranged.
