Meet the uncomfortably close mother-daughter duos of ‘sMothered’ Season 2
A mother’s love knows no bounds — but these moms know no boundaries.
TLC’s hit reality series “sMothered” follows six mother-daughter pairs whose relationships are sometimes a little too close for comfort, from role-playing together to sharing showers — well into adulthood.
The show, co-produced by The Post, returns for its second season this Sunday (10 p.m. EDT), following a first season that featured moms and daughters who partied together, got boob jobs together, shared each other’s bathwater and crashed each other’s dates.
The second season of the buzzy show will see three returning pairs from Season 1: Kathy and Cristina, who say they are each other’s “husbands” and get cosmetic surgery together; Sunhe and Angelica, who share bathwater and go on outings with their respective boyfriends together; and Dawn and Cher, who talk to each other nonstop and also appeared on MTV’s “My Super Sweet 16” in 2007.
They’ll be joined by three brand-new pairs this season — and believe it or not, they up the show’s “outrageous” factor. From showering together (yes, really) to face-licking, here are the new duos who push the boundaries on close mother-daughter relationships.
Mary and Brittani
Mary, 55, and Brittani, 20, are a Jensen Beach, Florida-based duo who do everything together, including shopping, cosmetic surgery, sharing a bed at night and showers in the mornings. Mary, who works in a tailor shop, refers to her daughter as “the love of my life.”
They know that sharing showers might come off as weird, but Mary says she doesn’t care.
“There’s so many mom and daughters out there that aren’t close — and if they think it’s weird, it’s because they’re not close,” she tells The Post. “I think that to have a daughter is a blessing for a mother. The closeness is a bond that a mother and daughter need to have, and, in this day and age, I don’t see a lot of it. So I don’t care what other people say.”
Brittani says she’s also unruffled by other people’s judgment.
“My friends are like, ‘Why do you hang out with your mom so much?’” she tells The Post. “But it’s my mom, she’s my No. 1 friend, I can tell her anything. Kids my age are into different things than [I am], boyfriends or girlfriends. I want to focus on me, and only me. My mom helps me and supports me through whatever I do.”
They started sharing showers when Brittani was a child — she used to have panic attacks that were partly brought on by the hot water, they think.
“That’s kind of how I started getting in the shower with her, just to comfort her because she would freak out,” says Mary. “That grew into an every-other-day thing. When she was smaller, it was every day.”
Mary says her tight-knit relationship with Brittani has put a strain on her relationship with her live-in boyfriend, Frank, all of which will be shown on “sMothered.”
“It has caused some issues in my relationship, but he’s got to accept it,” Mary says. “That’s how it is. He knows I love him, but I love my daughter more — she’s my life.”
Marcia and Alena
Marcia, 68, and Alena, 21, are a pair based in Briarcliff Manor, NY. Alena, who’s currently a student at Quinnipiac University, has a rare enzyme deficiency that has stunted her growth, limiting her height to 4 feet 3. She was bullied for it as a child, which is part of what bonded her to Marcia.
“It was really rough for her in school,” says Marcia. “We used to role-play and I’d be the tough guy and I’d make her tough. [Other students] would say, ‘How come you’re short?,’ and she’d say, ‘How come you’re not so smart?’ The kids would back off from her because I created a pit bull!”
Marcia, who adopted Alena from Siberia and calls her “my true love” on-screen in “sMothered,” wouldn’t let her daughter have a puppy while she was growing up. Instead, Marcia “became” a puppy, waking Alena up by licking her face the way a puppy might.
“When she was little it was hard to wake her up, so I’d go in and be like a dog or puppy,” says Marcia. “We had so much fun doing it, it cemented the way we feel about each other.”
As Alena grew older and started wearing makeup, sometimes the lick turned into a nibble instead, they say.
“She used to do that more when I was a kid, but now she just kisses me a lot,” Alena explains.
Their tight bond has never presented a problem to romantic partners, they insist.
“I wouldn’t date somebody like that [who didn’t understand],” Marcia says. ”I wouldn’t tolerate that.”
Laurie and Sarah
Laurie, 60, and Sarah, 26, are a Florida-based duo (Laurie lives in Port St. Lucie, and Sarah lives an hour away in Boca Raton). Because Laurie has had lifelong health struggles, they have a dynamic in which daughter Sarah acts as the “parent” to her mom.
“We do everything together,” Sarah tells The Post. “Rap concerts, Miami Heat [basketball] games, we go shopping, to the beach, we go for coffee. I monitor her health, so I go to all her doctor appointments with her, that’s a big part of it — I monitor her water intake, what she’s eating.”
Laurie has had diabetes and taken insulin for 57 years and has experienced kidney failure in the past. That’s why Sarah constantly checks in on her, even going as far as getting updates from her friends.
“She became the mother,” says Laurie. “I don’t know exactly when, but now I’m the pain-in-the-butt teenager!”
Sarah, who works for a fashion company and lives with her boyfriend, Miguel, 33, says their mother-daughter bond does sometimes cause tension.
“We both work full-time and we don’t get too many days off together. So on a lot of my days off, I go spend time with her.”