Why was Cory Wharton on Teen Mom? The Challenge USA season 2 star shares update about Maya Grace's health

The Challenge: USA star Cory Wharton made it to the headlines yet again after a surprise appearance on MTV's reality television show Teen Mom: The Next Chapter season 2.

Cheyenne Floyd, a participant on the show, shares her 7-month-old daughter Ryder with Cory Wharton. The former couple, who originally met on the sets of MTV's hit reality television show The Challenge: Rivals III, have continued co-parenting Ryder despite having moved on to different relationships.

Floyd married Zach Davis after the show and now shares 14-month-old son Ace with him. Wharton has since had two kids with longtime girlfriend Taylor Selfridge, Mila and Maya. However, the families continue to get together in the hopes of parenting the kids and providing them with a stable familial background.

Recently, Wharton announced that his daughter Maya Grace was diagnosed with tricuspid atresia, a congenital heart disease, and had to undergo open heart surgery. The latest episode of Teen Mom documented the entire procedure and provided an update on Maya's health. It also showed the mental and physical ordeal the families had to go through.

Cheyenne Floyd recently spoke about the whole incident in an interview with People Magazine and commented:

"It was rough to see them [Cory and Taylor] go through such a hard time. And for us, we just wanted to make sure that they knew that we supported them. But it was hard. It was definitely the roughest I've ever seen Cory and I was worried about him. So it's a lot of me checking in or Zach checking in."

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Cory Wharton provides a devastating update regarding Maya's health

In a recent interview with Daily Mail, Cory Wharton opened up about how he's been doing since Maya's open heart surgery and provided an update on her health.

He revealed that Maya is yet to be cleared by the doctors as they claim that the disorder is a "heart defect" that needs treatment at an early age, and therefore, Maya would have to undergo more surgeries in the future.

However, he commented that the family will continue to battle against Maya's health struggles. Talking about what the future holds for the family, he said:

"We're just happy to turn that chapter and move on, and she is doing great. She checks out all the doctor's appointments, she's passing all the little tests, and we're just so happy to turn that page and start a new chapter."

When asked how he felt about his brief appearance on the latest episode of Teen Mom, Cory explains that nothing would ever encapsulate the pressure and emotional trauma the families went through during such tough times. He commented:

"It's fine. It's more so, Taylor gets a little bit upset that not more of the story can be told. It's very quick on the show, it doesn't really go through much of how we're feeling, it's just like one conversation here and there."

However, that isn't to say that Cory Wharton was in any way criticizing the episode as he stressed the importance of the fact that the show is through Cheyenne's voice. He commented:

"I would say the biggest thing about Teen Mom is that it's through Cheyenne's voice. And what I mean by that is she's always gonna have the last say... you know, the show's called Teen Mom, it's not called Teen Dad. So we're like kind of side characters in the show."

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Cory Wharton is gearing up for his new reality competition show, The Challenge: USA season 2, which premieres Thursday, August 10, 2023, exclusively on CBS.