On Breaking Amish, Kate is portrayed as the bishop’s daughter. Supposedly she has been an Amish girl all her life (except for a brief stint in Florida where she got a DUI) and is just now truly leaving the Amish.
In reality, sources tell me that Kate hasn’t been Amish for years. She has been driving a car, dressing non-Amish, and working in a Ruby Tuesdays in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
In the mugshot from Kate’s arrest in Florida for DUI, she has her hair down and looks decidedly non-Amish. Luckily for TLC, they came clean about this. You can see the arrest record and mugshot here. This page also shows her full name (Katie Ann Stoltzfus) and her date of birth. I love Florida’s public records policy.
The real shocker came with the discovery (discovered about 24 hours ago) of a modeling photo posted on exploretalent.com in which Kate apparently entered a Best Smile contest. The contest was in August 2010. I guess her aspirations of being a model are real. It might be the only real thing about Breaking Amish.
Kate’s Best Smile Entry
The photo is from https://www.facebook.com/BreakingAmishTheTruth and the original tip was from Colleen Smiley.
Taking a picture like this, much less posting it to a modelling site would be forbidden by the Amish. We can conclude that she did not just recently leave the Amish.
Interestingly, within hours of this evidence being posted on the Facebook Truth page, the profile and everything was removed from the modelling site. Lucky for you, you can still see the original page in Google’s cache.
UPDATE: 9/18/2012, 4:13 PM EST:
Dear lying spammers. You can give up, now. Your comments will not be approved. Other comments will be approved after I’ve determined that they’re legit.
Someone from PostWorks NY, a production company that worked on Breaking Amish, keeps spamming this blog using multiple names and email addresses in an attempt to have his or her comments posted. I sent their company an email asking them politely to stop whichever employee is making these attacks. I haven’t heard back yet.
Somebody using a proxy server to hide behind is also spamming this blog using multiple names and email addresses.
It seems I’ve stirred up a nest of angry hornets.
X Amish Atheist 
I am pretty sure that Amish girls do not wear makeup.
Well, sell iss yuschd baut alles woss ich hab sawwa wulla. Machs guud!
Katie Ann is my wife’s niece and her father is my cousin, she had left home a while ago, therefore it’s not like she left her parents house and went to New York. Katie Ann’s parents live in the Lebanon County Amish settlement and her father is a Minister not a Bishop as she mentions in her interview for TLC.
YEAH LIKE YOU’RE RELATED..I CALL BS
John, you share her last name but she’s your wife’s niece… Did you take your wife’s last name. That’s not how surnames work
Stoltzfus is an extremely common name here in PA.
I am so angry with TLC! I was looking forward to learning more about the Amish and I cannot believe they would just lie like this am expect noone to find out. Of course I figured a little bit would be scripted or certain situations would be set up but they might as well have hired actors and actresses with no Amish background. Shame on them!
Thank you for all the posts about this show! I always try to believe there’s a little bit of reality in my ‘reality’ tv, and I had just watched the first 2 episodes of this show earlier today and enjoyed it. While I found a lot of it to seem very staged, I believed in the basic premise & now I feel like a sucker. What a shame, they could have actually made a show that educated people about the Amish lifestyle and what happens to young people who choose to leave the culture behind. I would have watched it. I will not be watching this hogwash, too bad TLC feels the need to further insult America’s intelligence.
isnt Stoltzfus the last namer of Naomi who divorced Jeremiah?
Well, Stoltzfus is a very common name in Pennsylvania, especially among Amish and Mennonite. I live in Central PA and it seems like everyone has this German last names — Stoltzfus, Rotz, Burkholder, Martin, Zook, Zimmerman, etc etc.
Mel, Jeremiah Raber’s ex wife’s name is Naomi, but her last name is not Stolzfus.
its stutzman or something like that
TLC is trash TV. Look at their other programming (I don’t mean watch it, just look at the titles). It’s all fake “reality” and wedding and baby stuff. They have no credibility. (And they used to be “The Learning Channel” which would be funny if it weren’t so sad).
I totally support you in what you are doing – searching for the truth and finding your own way. Thanks for your illuminating blog!
I call TLC The Litter Channel for all the shows like Jon & Kate + 8, Table for 10 (or 12 or 16), all the shows that glamorize multiple births.
Naomi’s last name is Stutzman
I live in Berks County which is right next to Lancaster County and alot of Amish and Mennonite come up this way and I’ve seen them in the mall at times shopping for things. This show is completely fake and portrays the Amish and Mennonite people as dumb and mean when they are nothing like that. TLC I’m ashamed of you.
I totally agree. There are some Amish communities that are big enough to be more sheltered (like in Missouri I think?) but here in Pennsylvania, the Amish and Mennonite do a lot of the things normal people do. Many of them do have phones, but sometimes they’re outside of the house. They only take the buggies for shorter distances. They hire a van driver to take them on longer trips. They eat fast food and junk food. They shop at Wal-Mart, malls, all of that. I’ve seen them at the beach and at amusement parks. So, it’s not like they know nothing about non-Amish life.
The one thing that got me when I first started watching this show was that only Abe and kinda-sorta Jeremiah have “accents.” The Amish and Mennonite in my town have an accent when they speak English.
It makes me sad that this show is so fake.
I wonder how they (TLC) are going to explain themselves.
We have Amish and Mennonites in Missouri. It makes me mad how fake this show is too. Makes me not believe TLC anymore.
We vacation in Gatliburg, TN and we see Amish at Ober Gatliburg and at nascar speedpark. So they do get out and do stuff us english people do. And they are really friendly!
we also have alot of amish in our small town in wisconsin and we accept them as normal people as I myself have seen them at walmart and places like that and also have had the honor of a normal conversation with a few, For whomever think they are dumb guess again bc they are extremely intelligant people and I was honored to learn a few things from them!!!
Apprently, you are striking a nerve. Several news orgs are reporting that TLC is admitting that the people are not as “Amish” as they are being shown and this “will be addressed in future episodes.” Keep up the good work!
True. But I still find TLC’s statement a half-hearted attempt to do some damage control. TLC said “There is a lot of information floating around about the group featured on Breaking Amish. Much of it is not true, but some of it is — and is addressed in upcoming episodes.”
Come on now, those are just empty words. They are just attempting to make us watch the upcoming episodes, but there is no way they are going reveal at some point that a few of them are actually married or have not been a part of the Amish for 14 years. It’s not like they are going to step forward and go “oh, BTW, all the information we gave you in the first episode, is false. Here are the facts…”
I bet the “information floating around that will be addressed in the future” is just going to be about e.g. Kate’s DUI and something like that. I cannot believe TLC tried so blatantly to lie to us, when it was so easy to uncover true information about these people on-line. One article on a somewhat serious news site said that TLC was trying hard to find out how the people on the show managed to hide their non-Amish pasts from the producers. I say bullshit! The producers must have known that these people were not Amish any more. One has to be seriously blind or wilfully ignorant to miss something like that during production. After the show is over, I bet TLC hasn’t told us any more about them faking the show. The information we’ll have at that point will all be thanks to the active work of people on-line, like xamishatheist.
Call me what you will, but I am looking forward to nitpicking the next episode and seeing how TLC will spin their lies and deceit. I just read the Daily Mail article -Anonymous Atheist had posted the link – and it gave credit to a FB account Breaking Amish The Truth. I can’t remember if this is also one of XAmishAtheist’s FB pages, but if it isn’t, credit should be given.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2206755/Breaking-Amish-Is-TLC-fake.html
I grew up in Lancaster County, not Amish, but certainly around plenty of Amish and Mennonite folks. I know of no one that was born and raised in Lancaster or has left the area that doesn’t have some sort of Lancaster County accent. It is a strong accent and if these kids were speaking “Dutch” all their lives, they would have the accent. Anyone familiar with the area would be able to hear it. This show is so fake. It is a disgrace to the Amish and Mennonites of PA and OH.
I watched an episode today and immediately knew it was fake. I know I’ve seen Kate on a tv show before.
I’ve seen her on a show too! I can’t think of it yet. I want to say like America’s Next Top Model or something. I recognized her immediately but for the life I me can’t remember from where!
As an ex-Amish I was happy to find that you are sharing the truth about this show and revealing how fake it is.
A few easy indicators that these kids left their Amish communities long ago…. Sabrina has pierced ears. All of them, particularly Jeremiah use slang and swear. Rebecca opens her wallet and it reveals a drivers license.The way they dress when given the opportunity, talk, and drink, they seem more like cast-offs from The Jersey Shore than runaways from Amish land.
You are doing a great service with this blog and outing this so called reality show! I was surprised at the few postings in some of your other articles that actually questioned the veracity of your findings but after reading your disclaimer above about stirring up the angry hornets’ nest I understand;) keep up the good work. Will be up past my bedtime reading all your stuff:)
Thanks! Actually, the comments you see are the ones being posted. Here and there, is one that questions my findings. I only had to delete about 20-30 comments that one day because they were left by only several different people (I can see IP addresses),these people were posting under multiple names and email addresses, they were impersonating other people, they were lying, and they were making personal attacks against me. I don’t remove comments just because they disagree with me.
I was excited for this show to air, then when I realized in episode two how staged and fake it was,I got angry and will not be watching it again. Ya can’t believe anything nowadays.
Maybe the show is fake. I still learned more than I had before which was nothing about Mennonites and there are a lot of different Amish churches. Even if you called it a ‘Docudrama’ I would still watch.
It is better than ‘Here comes honey boo boo’ which feels like a laugh at the “little chubby redneck” show. Also on TLC
After reading the above comment, I should clarify.
I meant to say that before, I knew nothing about the Mennonites. I just thought they were Amish that drove cars. And when I said that there were a lot of churches, I meant that I did not know that there were so many different Amish churches and that they all had different rules and such.
And I should say that I don’t really expect much from a reality tv show. I will try to find NatGeo Amish out of Order.
Ok, so I have no doubt that TLC has faked a great majority of this but the question I do have is how in the world would they get the Amish who are still in the community to agree to come to the hotel for instance? I am disappointed that TLC faked so much of this but I don’t know how easy it would be to film Amish who were seriously taking on NYC for the first time. I have had an interest in the Amish for a long time and have done research for different reasons including a college thesis. So when I saw TLC had this show coming on I was stoked! On a side note I am not a huge Jeremiah fan at all, especially after all I have read. Shame on him!
Excuse me? What’s wrong with multiple births? I am 3 months pregnant with spontaneous twins and very proud and happy about it!
I would never go on a reality show. I have a masters degree and I live in Manhattan. I think reality tv is silly, light and entertaining…what is your problem with multiples?
“I call TLC The Litter Channel for all the shows like Jon & Kate + 8, Table for 10 (or 12 or 16), all the shows that glamorize multiple births.”
I think you grossly misunderstood my comment, and my examples did not include twins which should have been your big clue; in fact, while twins are multiples, they have become more common. I have never seen or heard of a reality show showcasing a family with one set of twins (unless they are otherwise unusual, e.g., Little People, Big World). And just to make myself perfectly clear, when I speak about “multiples” I am talking about four or more, NOT TWINS or triplets.
My “problem” with multiples is women who undergo IVF because they are unable to conceive naturally (again to make myself perfectly clear – via sexual intercourse) always claim that “God wanted me to have all these babies” instead of following their doctor’s advice and their signed agreement to abort excess zygotes. It seems to me that by that same reasoning, God didn’t want that woman to have children at all, and by extension, if God wanted a woman to have four, five, six or more babies at one time, then it would happen more often and would happen naturally, NOT by IVF. Very rarely do you find natural multiples over three, and natural triplets are still fairly rare. It should also be noted that multiple births often have serious health and mental problems, including low birth weight, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and learning problems.
My apologies to all. I realize this is off topic, but Rachel obviously did not understand my reply to Bunny’s assessment of TLC. That or she just had to tell the world she is pregnant with twins AND she has a masters degree AND she lives in Manhattan. (Note to Rachel: Just to be perfectly clear, that last sentence is laced with heavy sarcasm.)
**Snicker** lunylive!
After watching the show I started to wonder if Kate had really ever been Amish, I felt like there was just something fake with her, she didn’t even seem to have an Amish accent.. like most of the Amish I’ve come in contact with have. Wasn’t expecting to find out all this stuff about the other cast members – like how they have Abe and Rebecca acting as if they’re just getting to know each other, when in reality they have a child together.
Thought this may actually be an interesting reality series. We’ve had enough bad reality shows on as it is..now we “fake reality”? No thanks!
A question…how long ago was this series filmed? If it was a while back, Abe and Rebecca would have had time to make a baby, have it be born, and had it grow up a little by this point.
Kate…her teeth are too straight and white and her brows are too plucked for me to believe she just left the Amish because of the show.
Regarding Abe and Rebecca…maybe not. I just looked around the site a little more and saw the photos of them with their baby in the fall of 2011. Unless they filmed the series in the summer of 2010…
A press release issued by the production company asserts that filming started April/May 2012.
If the author of a million tiny pieces had to admit he lied to gain attention and a base then tlc should have to as well. Claiming lies as truth is fraud. They should refund, donate all the money they made and cancel the show and bring it back under a different title.
Wow this is really shocking. I just saw couple of episodes & was starting to get hooked but if its alot of fake stuff & lies i wont be watching it. I was just trying to find out if any the episodes she told why she had no teeth at such young age. One sight i was on said that was a common practice pulling young peoples teeth out. So if thats true that alot of amish people do this practice i wonder why the other 2 girls seemed so shocked that she had false teeth? Does anyone know if TLC’s paying them because Ive been to New York city one time & a pack of smokes i think was almost $6 i could be little high i just know it was almost $2 more than i pay at home in Tenn. One other question or thought I wonder if TLC is paying for there hotel rooms? Because they look pretty nice definitely no roach motel & i know however long they been there filming wouldcost an arm & leg! They definitely wouldnt have money to go out & do all the different things they get to do. Unfortunately seems like TLC pulling out a play from Tru-Tv playbook like Operation Repo & few more shows like that.
The show IS 100% fake. I hooked up with Kate (sorry Kate) a few times and we hung out a lot and she was no virgin or innocent flower. This was a few years ago and she was no different then any NYC model or actress I dated before. Kate was never much of a model anyway and would ask me all the time to call friends in film and tv cause she wanted to act too. She never, not once mentioned being Amish and I think it would have came up if she were the same person she portrays in the show – who is morally conflicted by her past with her present. I started watching the show after friends spammed my Facebook about it. It was more or less making fun of me through her, cause they know its fake. The comment from her supposed uncle above…I bet is fake. The only cast member who seems the most legit is Abe.
ya the show might be fake,and she might not be a strong amish girl,but my ex was a big model traveld all over the the world on diff photo shoots,and ive hung out with lots of models,ects, that girl is way 2 shy,or shes the greatest actor in the world,but i just dont see that girl going around getting with diff guys,if you got with her were did u meet her at,i use 2 go with my ex 2 some of her photo shoots, and at frist i felt bad if she was really amish because she would of had no clue what she was getting into to,some of the camra men,guys who hold the lights ect,try 2 take advatage of the girls saying they will give them more camera time if they go out on a date 4 them,kate is a good looking girl,and you can tell she loves 2 party just a lil 2 hard,but every guy thats scene this show wants 2 get with kate, u no how old that girl is, im just woundering cuz one of the models i no,kinda no her,she did try out for that tyra banks model show,my ex is always on the east coast so she knows alot of the girls,and if that girl is amish at all, shes not gonna go around getting with anyone,the parents dont want 2 rase hoes,pardon my french,lol, but i dont no r u a model, cuz how did u meet her, i dont no the story just sounds how most guys feel about that girl,im not a model,i dj, but ive met alot of them cuz of my ex, and my ex be4 her was also a model just not as big, but even no that show is fake, she totally wanted nothing 2 do with that guy who asked her out, she might not be amish but she still might really be strong in there religion,just doesnt wanna be stuck wearing the same clothes everyday,but im just woudering,if u have an anwser feel free 2 write me,im not calling u a lier,im just saying,there are so many guys that want 2 be with that girl,so if its tru,congrats i guess,
Excuse me, but could you translate this into English?
That’s what I was gonna say!
What Mike says about photo shoots is total BS. Not unless you’re talking about a shoot in your uncle Vinny’s basement. “The guys who hold the lights etc, try to take advantage of the girls saying they will give them more camera time” LOL that line is so dumb and inaccurate it’s pathetic.
Unfortunately, Kate’s limited career as a model has nothing to do with her being Amish…get that part straight. She doesn’t have the look, the personality or talent. Few girls do. Kate does have a wonderful innocence about her, which Mike (above) says is a negative…BUT to the world of fashion it is a quality that sadly Kate doesn’t know how to express well. Kate is cute but, she can’t be a runway or print model at 5′ 8″. The agency that’s promoting her is only doing so because of the show. When the energy fades, things will change.
Mike I don’t need your congrats, you look at woman and models in the wrong light…likely because you’re a teenage kid suffering from delusions of grandeur.
In any case, I wish Kate all the best.
You “hooked up” with her a few times, way to respect her privacy, putting that TMI out there, yeah whatever not so “private” smh…
Thank you for sharing your voice.
Love your blog! So disappointing that this is so staged. It’s so staged that they can’t even hide it in the story line! I think there should be rules prohibiting the networks from such outright deception. I know that through editing and such, networks can manipulate audiences, but this is too much!
Prayers for healthy critical thinking for everyone when watching any TV show. I didn’t assume the exact time when they left the Amish when I watched the show. Sometimes, when shows are done they take the truth as in they did leave the Amish life at one point & start from that point to have a starting point for something. The time frame often, implied & up to the viewer to figure out. Reality shows are often, reality stretched. In all religions there are people who are compassionate & accepting & those who aren’t. Producers of all shows reality or not have the job of scripting a show. Drama sells. TLC is no different than any other TV channel in creating drama to sell something. Critical thinking helps one to determine where facts are & where truth stretched is. I didn’t assume Jeremiah had never been married. Many people did because it wasn’t clarified. I didn’t assume any of the cast members didn’t have a past. We all do even religious people. Some people will leave a religious group multiple times, go back, & leave again before making a complete decision about whether to stay or go. I didn’t assume all were innocent because they were Amish. I prefer to get to know the individual to know what their character is. Example: I stayed a virgin in high school. However, a rumor gave people another impression. A girl who believed some of the rumors decided to get to know me. She then told me she was glad to find out the rumors weren’t true. That was maturity on her part. Have known very kind religious people and very, very mean religious people. I do my best not to assume anything when watching TV shows. I watch, research, learn and do my best to use healthy critical thinking skills & deductive reasoning. All people have the right of disclosure. That doesn’t mean they lied. However, openness is often appreciated but some don’t like openness in people. Example: We all have the right to privacy medically. However, someone with a heart challenge might be hated if they have a heart episode requiring a trip to the hospital in front of a friend if they don’t tell a friend about their heart challenge. Then there are friends that wouldn’t view it as lying and wouldn’t get angry if they weren’t told until necessary out of trying to respect someone’s privacy. I prefer to know but if I don’t and something happens I don’t hate a person for it or get angry at them. I tell them I am glad to know. It helps to know. It’s a risk to tell or not tell anything to anyone. TV producers have this difficult balancing act to do every day. Prayers for understanding for everyone. Remember… when someone leaves a religion there is often, conflict in the decision & a history there that might be dysfunctional whether they discuss it or not. It’s their right. With all due respect. All rights reserved.
Dear KH,
Thank you. Your comment is the most reasonable thing I have heard said about this show. I personally know nothing about the reality or non-reality of this show or the people involved, but if the information on this show is authentic I feel sorry for the Amish kids. They’re all still pretty young and probably don’t or didn’t realize what the results of having their lives on national television would be. If it were possible for me to contact them I would advise them to be careful about what they say and do. A thoughtless remark is a lot more destructive and hard to live down when it is recorded and broadcast to an entire nation. I worry about them, how are they going to support themselves if they don’t have enough education to get a job in the “English” community and the Amish and ex-Amish wont hire them? I can see that they are just feeding the fire of destruction by doing a second season, but I can hardly blame them if it is the only work they can find. I pray that Jesus will keep them safe, and that they will come to know Him in a personal way that will bring them strength, hope and comfort. I have a pretty stable life, yet I need Jesus so much. Personally I can’t do without Him, and I need to be closer and more obedient to him myself.
I hope all will turn out for the best with these young people and those they meet.
Sincerely, Anna
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How long before Katie poses nude?
We have many Amish at the Dutch Country Market near us. Most of the younger ones don’t have a discernable accent.
I found this page while searching for more info on Kate from this show. I saw her and thought she looked very familiar and then realized I knew her face from a commercial a few years ago (not a Breakig Amish commercial). I cannot find the commercial nor do I remember what it was for. But it was definitely her! All I remember was that it was a mostly white background with just her talking. Her face looked a little fuller than it does on the show.
Ummmmm yeah…. Kate looks familiar because she used to be in PORN! Look it up
Yeah. I knew this was fake from the get go. Kate was my waitress at Ruby Tuesday’s in Lebanon one night. Also, my cousin worked with her at Ruby Tuesday. She borrowed clothing from workers, which she never returned, and had a Facebook account. When she was approached for the show she quit her job, deleted her Facebook profile, and acted as though she never knew anyone from Lebanon. The fact that she feels the need to lie about that just shows the absurdity of the show. I wouldn’t doubt all the others are lying about something, too.
I really like the show, but the religious aspects bother me. The shunning of their own family, other Amish in Fla. not wanting to help them. Really? Go to a Christian church then. As far as my faith is concerned, we help everyone. I don’t understand how people claim to be so religious that they don’t even wear store bought clothes, etc, but don’t follow God according to his word in the Bible. The Bible is about forgiveness, loving your neighbors as you do yourself, patience, and Much more. Pluck the rod out of your eye, before you try to remove the sliver from someone elses. God does not want us to turn people away in his name, let alone your own flesh and blood! The kids on the show were upset at different times about things that personally bothered them, ie, going to see a medium, but are ok to get drunk (Kate).
They are so full of hypocrisy and judgement of others when they don’t like whats happening, but seem to look the other way, of their own short comings. They swear like truckers, judge, and let their tempers get the best of them all the time. They need to pick up a Bible and do what that says, not what they were raised to believe, because that doesn’t seem to have helped them at all!
Val, this show is a sham, it was the first season, and it most certainly is on the second. Go back and read the posts by XAmishAtheist and reader comments from the beginning. If you think about it logically, according to the first show, no one except Kate is employed, yet they all have apartments and can rent an RV, which is not cheap, and take a road trip to Florida – who is paying for the rental, gas, food, trinkets? Duh! TLC is paying for everything and TLC gives them the scenarios, an unscripted script, improvisation if you will. Just because the show is touted as reality TV does not mean it is real.
*first show of Season Two.
Tell me this isn’t Kate… LOL
http://{{restricted site}}/Blonde-Florida-stripper-on-the-CastingCouchX/video641400/
It’s not. Kate’s nose is straight (with a slight upturn). This girl has a slight hook nose.
I knew it was fake from the start. Iv’e vistied Amnish folks & they never would act like that plus if they were really Amnish some morals would’ve actually stuck with them. Not turn 360° around just like that. Its obvious & makes the real Amnish look bad. Smh. Sick how people would do anything just for money.
ok call me curious…but did anyone notice that when Rebecca first took her cap off, her hair was layered? I doubt that an Amish would layer their hair just to go under a cap
Any show that has “writer” in the credits…. hard to be reality when it is pre-written.
from the florida arrest record, Birthdate: 09/21/1990
from the Enterprise, Southern Maryland Newspapers:
Marriage licenses –
Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009
John Israel Swarey, 21, of Charlotte Hall and Katie Ann Stoltzfus, 19, of Mechanicsville.
eat another Katie Ann Stoltzfus, or was she previously married too?
To be honest who cares if she is amish or ex amish or ateist or whatever, its her life.