When Breaking Amish first hit TLC in 2012, it felt like a fever dream. You had five young people from Plain communities—Amish and Mennonite—dropping into the middle of New York City, wearing skinny jeans for the first time, and staring at skyscrapers like they were alien spacecraft. It was addictive television. It was also, as we'd later find out, a bit of a stretch in the "reality" department.
If you're looking for the Breaking Amish cast today, you won't find most of them in Punxsutawney or Sarasota. They’ve lived entire lifetimes since that first season. Some are married with a house full of kids. Others have faced serious legal trouble or public breakups. Most importantly, almost all of them have had to answer for the fact that they weren't exactly as "fresh off the farm" as the show's producers wanted us to believe.
The Original Five: A Reality Check
The core group—Abe, Rebecca, Jeremiah, Sabrina, and Kate—became instant household names. But the "scandal" that nearly broke the internet back then was the revelation that some of these cast members had already left the Amish way of life years before the cameras started rolling.
Take Abe Schmucker and Rebecca Byler. The show framed their romance as a blossoming, "forbidden" love between two people discovering the world together. In reality? They already had a child together. They weren't strangers meeting in a van on the way to NYC; they were a couple with a history. Despite the production's attempt to craft a simpler narrative, Abe and Rebecca have actually turned out to be the most stable outcome of the franchise.
They’re still together. That’s a rarity in reality TV. They eventually transitioned away from the cameras to raise their family in Pennsylvania. Rebecca has been vocal on social media about the toll reality TV takes on a person's mental health. She even got her GED, a huge milestone for someone who left school after the eighth grade. They’ve mostly traded the spotlight for a quiet, suburban life, which is honestly the most "Amish" thing they could have done—valuing the family unit over the noise of fame.
Jeremiah Raber: The Perpetual Rebel
Then there’s Jeremiah Raber. If the Breaking Amish cast had a lightning rod, it was him. Jeremiah was always the guy who seemed to have one foot in the English world and one foot... well, somewhere else entirely. He was the oldest of the group and had already been out of the community for over a decade when the show started.
Jeremiah’s life post-show has been a rollercoaster. He married Carmela Mendez, and their relationship has played out across social media and subsequent seasons of Return to Amish with intense volatility. We’re talking public accusations, separations, and reconciliations. He also spent years searching for his biological family, a journey that was deeply emotional and honestly, quite painful to watch. He eventually found his biological father’s family, only to discover a history of tragedy.
Recently, Jeremiah has been trying to make a go of it as a content creator and businessman. He’s sold Amish-themed merchandise and remains the most active cast member online. He’s a guy who clearly struggles with where he belongs. He isn't Amish, but he isn't fully "English" either. He’s stuck in that middle ground that the show exploited for ratings, but for him, it’s a daily reality.
Sabrina Burkholder’s Long Road to Recovery
Sabrina’s story is probably the most heart-wrenching of the entire Breaking Amish cast. She wasn't Amish; she was Mennonite, which is a distinction the show often glossed over. Because she was adopted, she always felt like an outsider, and that search for belonging led her down some very dark paths.
For a few years, the headlines about Sabrina were grim. We’re talking about multiple overdoses, arrests, and losing custody of her older children. It was a public downward spiral that made people wonder if she’d even survive. But here is the thing about Sabrina: she’s a fighter.
- She went to rehab multiple times.
- She found a new partner, Jethro Nance.
- She had more children and worked tirelessly to maintain her sobriety.
- She eventually stepped away from the show to focus on her health.
Watching her on Return to Amish in later seasons was a lesson in nuance. You saw the physical and emotional scars of addiction. She didn’t sugarcoat it. While she and Jethro eventually split, Sabrina seems to have found a level of stability that seemed impossible five years ago. She’s a reminder that the transition from a sheltered community to the "real world" involves more than just wearing makeup; it involves navigating traumas that most people can't imagine.
Kate Stoltz: From the Farm to the Runway
Kate is the outlier. While the others stayed somewhat tethered to their roots or the reality TV circuit, Kate Stoltz (formerly Stoltzfus) essentially deleted her old life and coded a new one.
She moved to New York City and didn't just visit—she stayed. She became a successful fashion designer and model. If you look at her Instagram today, you won’t see any traces of the girl who was shucking corn in Pennsylvania. She’s a businesswoman. She runs her own fashion line, Kate Stoltz NYC, and has won awards for her work.
Kate was always the most reserved member of the Breaking Amish cast. She seemed to view the show as a stepping stone rather than a career. She leveraged the platform, got her education at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), and built a legitimate brand. She’s the success story for anyone who thinks their background defines their ceiling. She rarely talks about her time on TLC anymore, and you can’t really blame her. She’s moved on.
What the Cameras Didn't Show You
The biggest criticism of the show was the "fraud" factor. Critics pointed out that many of the cast members had Facebook accounts or drivers' licenses long before the show aired. But if you look deeper, the truth is more complex.
Leaving an Amish or Mennonite community isn't always a clean break. It’s often a "soft exit" where people experiment with the outside world, return home, get shunned, and then try again. The Breaking Amish cast represented people in various stages of that exit. Just because they had used a cell phone before doesn't mean they were "English." They were still culturally Amish, dealing with the psychological weight of leaving their families and facing eternal damnation—according to their upbringing.
The Financial Reality
People think reality stars are rich. They aren't. Not these guys. While they made a decent per-episode salary during the height of the show, it wasn't "never work again" money.
Abe drove a truck for years. Rebecca worked in a bakery. They had to navigate taxes, insurance, and rent—things they were never taught in Amish schools. The "English" world is expensive. The cast didn't just have to learn how to use a microwave; they had to learn how to survive in a capitalist society without the safety net of a communal village.
The Legacy of the Show
Breaking Amish changed how we view "Plain" people, even if it was through a distorted lens. It sparked a massive interest in the Rumspringa—the period where Amish youth can explore the world—though the show definitely exaggerated the wildness of it.
The cast members who stayed in the public eye have had to deal with the "Amish" label forever. It’s a double-edged sword. It gave them a platform, but it also pigeonholed them. When Jeremiah tries to start a new business, he’s always "Jeremiah from Breaking Amish." When Sabrina shares a milestone, it's framed by her past mistakes on camera.
Navigating the Aftermath
If you're following the Breaking Amish cast now, you're seeing people in their 30s and 40s who are just trying to be "normal."
- Abe and Rebecca: Pure family focus. They’ve gone ghost on social media mostly, and that’s a win.
- Jeremiah: Still hustling, still in the mix of reality TV drama, currently living in the South.
- Sabrina: Focused on her kids and her sobriety. She’s active on social media, sharing the ups and downs of motherhood.
- Kate: High fashion, NYC life, and zero looking back.
The "reality" of their lives turned out to be much more interesting than the scripted drama of the first season. The real story wasn't them drinking a beer in Times Square; it was them trying to figure out who they were once the lights went down and the production crew went home.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Researchers
If you are following the lives of the Breaking Amish cast or looking into the reality of leaving a Plain community, keep these points in mind:
- Social Media is the Best Source: Most cast members (except Kate and the Schmuckers) are active on Instagram and TikTok. This is where you get the unedited version of their lives, far away from TLC’s storyboards.
- Support the Real Business: If you want to support them, look at Kate Stoltz’s design work or Jeremiah’s actual ventures rather than just re-watching old clips.
- Understand the Shunning: Leaving isn't just a choice; it's a loss of every social tie you've ever had. When you see a cast member struggling, it's often because they have no "home" to go back to.
- Check the Facts: If a story about a cast member seems too wild to be true, check local news outlets in Pennsylvania or Florida (where many moved). Reality TV gossip sites often blow minor incidents out of proportion.
The story of the Breaking Amish cast is ultimately one of transition. It's about five people who were caught between two worlds and had to build a third one for themselves. It wasn't always pretty, and it definitely wasn't always "reality," but for the people involved, the consequences were very real.