“For those of you guys listening who don’t know, [my cohost], Vee [Rivera], and I have COVID,” the Teen Mom 2 star, 29, said during a “Baby Mamas No Drama” podcast episode on Tuesday, August 3. “I would not have been around people if I knew I had COVID, but I tested negative twice. … I don’t even know how this happened.”

The reality star, who tested negative for COVID-19 when she returned from the trip, added that her ex Javi Marroquin has also contracted the coronavirus.

“I knew because I felt like s–t all week,” the Pennsylvania native said, although sons Isaac, 11, Lincoln, 7, Lux, 3, and Creed, 12 months, have all been asymptomatic. “Once I lost my taste and my smell, I knew what it was. I knew.”

The Hustle and Heart author has battled COVID before, contracting it in 2020 after a trip to Iceland. Lincoln also tested positive in March.

In April 2020, the MTV personality tweeted that she “absolutely [would] not” get the COVID vaccine and neither would her kids.

The Pride Over Pity author came under fire the previous year when she shared her decision not to vaccinate Lux. “I definitely think this is a controversial topic, and I don’t want to lose listeners because of my opinion — but, I did vaccinate Isaac, because to me, I didn’t know any better, and I gave — I let them vaccinate him with whatever they basically said that he needed,” Lowry said during a January 2019 “Coffee Convos” podcast episode. “And I feel like I was ignorant, and didn’t do research, and didn’t know any better.”

While raising Lincoln, the 16 and Pregnant alum began “watching documentaries on Netflix” that began changing her mind. “He hasn’t ever really been sick, and for me, I just think the more research that I do, and the more educated I’ve become, I just don’t vaccinate him,” Lowry said.

At the time, Jennifer Shu, an MD and pediatrician in Atlanta who does not treat the reality star, exclusively told Us, “People seem to equate reading about vaccines on the internet to doing actual scientific research about vaccines. Speculation and opinions are given equal weight to large-scale scientific studies.”

Lowry responded to backlash, saying she is raising her kids in the way she believes is “best” for them. “People don’t love everything I do, but I don’t shove my beliefs down anyone else’s throat,” the A Letter of Love author told InTouch. “I know what’s best for my kids and other parents know what’s best for theirs.”

This story originally appeared on: US Magazine - Author:Riley Cardoza