Following his three-year-old daughter’s heart surgery, MTV’s The Challenge and Teen Mom star Cory Wharton opens up about how the procedure gave him a new perspective on life.
Videos by Suggest
While speaking to TMZ earlier this week, Wharton said his daughter, Maya, whom he shares with Taylor Selfridge, had just been released from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She had to be at the hospital for two weeks.
“We knew when my girlfriend was pregnant that she was going ot require two open-heart surgeries,” he explained. “And we got through… We finally got through.”
Along with Maya, Wharton shares daughter Mila Mae with Selfridge. The former couple was together for years before calling it quits in May 2025. However, Wharton said he and Selfridge were “dealing with what we’re dealing with” last month. He noted he would be more open to discussing the situation at a later time.
He also shares daughter Ryder with ex-girlfriend Cheyenne Floyd.
The MTV Star Now Wants to Give Back to the Children’s Hospital
The MTV star revealed that his daughter has tricuspid atresia, which is a rare and serious congenital heart defect. As he continued to discuss the procedure, Wharton said the new perspective on life was the key to helping him remain stable throughout the situation.
“I was just happy that we were able to leave the Children’s Hospital,” he continued. “Because there’s a lot of families there that aren’t going to leave. They’re waiting a year or two for a heart transplant.”
He then noted, “There was people in that building that found a way to smile. Just by talking to them over time, I was just like, ‘These people are staying positive when they’re at their lowest.'”
Wharton said he was trying to do what he could to help out the Children’s Hospital or other young ones in need. “It’s a far cry from MTV, but I wanna try to do something positive with what I got going now.”
The MTV star made families at the Children’s Hospital happy by presenting a 2,518-pound giant Jack-O’-Lantern in the Madame Tussauds courtyard.