Stamper/haggerty wife swap where are they now

It's no secret that many things were faked or over-exaggerated on the show for more exciting television, especially in reality TV. A series like Wife Swap, which followed two different wives switching families for two weeks, was no exception to this age-old television rule. Unfortunately, this portrayal of these families on TV could have done more harm than good in the long term.

Some families seem to have made it to the other side unscathed—while others have turned to other platforms such as TikTok and Instagram to tell viewers about how their lives were turned upside down. Some of the families, however, have been keeping their profiles low since the series, others have taken a downturn, and some have been thriving.

The Blackburn Family

In 2005 he was introduced on Wife Swap as Tony Blackburn, now he's known as Buzz Blackburn and does work as a voiceover actor and composer, and even won an award for being the "Best Radio DJ of the Year" in 2018 at the Tennessee Music Awards. His voiceover work includes many video games such as Bloodwash, a PS1-styled horror game released in 2021, where he voices Peepaw, the owner of Peepaw's.

He also voices Cletus Tuckler in Shoot 'm up, Iron Anvil in Radio Commander, and plays Russel in the movie Checklist, a drama released in 2020 on Amazon Prime. While these roles may not be mainstream, Buzz has made an impressive living for himself. Now, he is far from the overweight boy struggling to keep up with the gym-obsessed mom he got stuck with on the show.

The Beaver Family

Many families on Wife Swap are portrayed as major conservative types, but the Beaver family was anything but in their episode. Despite being in season one, this family has gained a huge following on TikTok modeling their daughter Emily's crocheted crop tops due to people discovering them by streaming the series on Hulu.

Viewers of the show claim that the Beaver parents were ahead of their time due to the dad's dreadlocks and the wife's liberal views about conservative politics and a stuffed deer mounted on the wall. At the time of the show, the family was ridiculed for being tree-hugger hippies. Now, the tables have turned and over 400,000 followers are checking in on the parents, and the daughter's crochet business has never been better thanks to the platform.

The Stockdale Family

The Stockdales were portrayed on the show as living a devoutly religious and strict lifestyle who played in a bluegrass family band together. Eyebrows may have raised at how strict the family lived, but it was a shock for viewers of the show to learn that tragedy had struck the Stockdale family in 2017. Officers responded to a 911 call where they heard a single gunshot before the line went dead (per Medium).

Upon arriving at the home they discovered that Jacob Stockdale, the second to the youngest son, had shot his mother as well as his younger brother James, leaving them both dead, before turning the gun on himself. Jacob survived the self-inflicted gunshot wound and was arrested in September 2018. After many delays due to Jacob's mental instability, he was sentenced to fifteen years to life in April of 2021 (per Midwest Crime Files).

The Holland Family

In 2015, Lucy Hale from Pretty Little Liars made an Instagram post pondering about the whereabouts of "King Curtis" a sassy, chicken-nugget obsessed boy who claimed "bacon is good for me" in a very memorable episode from 2009. Curtis responded to the tweet by posting a YouTube video . In it, he says his family filmed an episode of their reality TV show that hadn't taken off yet, said he still loved chicken—strips now, not nuggets—and asked money from fans so he could get his muscle car, a hobby of his depicted in the show.

At age 14, he was on the show Pawn Stars where he wanted to trade a vintage camera for money for a car for the family's demolition derbies, but when only offered one hundred dollars he decided not to trade. While no longer trying to pursue a TV career, he was last known to be pursuing a career as a welder.

The Starling Family

When the episode aired in 2007, Justin Starling was 13 years old and an avid motocross racer, the parents sacrificing everything for their son to pursue his dream and even putting a dirt track in their backyard for him to practice on. Now, Justin is a professional motocross racer, having been signed in 2012 meaning all that hard work paid off.

Justin is teased for being the "Wife Swap Kid" but claims that the show made him "look bad" which is an understatement at how he treats the other mother when she forces him not to ride his bike for one week of her stay, using derogatory language and locking her out of his room when she tries talking to him about being upset. Despite his attitude on the show, he has quite a following on Instagram where he posts pictures of him airborne on his motorbike at his races.

The Guastaferro Family

All of the best reality TV shows have to have a drama queen, and Alicia Guastaferro was the Kim Kardashian of this episode as she's introduced as a pageant child whose parents keep a Christmas tree up all year round and gives their daughter a present every day. Her time on the show didn't go over so well with the general public.

Alicia sued ABC and Disney for how she was portrayed on television saying that the show exaggerated how spoiled she was and that she had been traumatized by bullying after her familys' episode aired (per NY Daily News). Although nothing came from that lawsuit, Alicia later sued a club she worked when she was 21 for stating she and other coworkers hadn't been compensated properly and managed to settle for $10,000. She's now on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok pursuing a music career.

The Herrington Family

Heidi Herrington is another Wife Swap kid who regrets being on the reality tv show, having made a TikTok where she talked about her experience and states her family was portrayed as "the bad family" (per Daily Mail). The perception of the family is based on the viewers' opinion, but when asked to explain herself in a TikTok video about what she meant she talked about her father's PTSD and how the show manipulated his mental health to make him look like a bad father.

Heidi uses the social media platform to spread awareness about mental health. The aftermath of the show is the fire behind her to reach out to others who may be seen as lazy when in actuality are struggling with depression, anxiety, or other mental illnesses.

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