Mama June is not happy about people who have criticized daughter Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson’s relationship with her boyfriend Dralin Carswell, convinced that the hateful messages they receive is simply because they are an interracial couple. In an interview with TooFab, the reality star was asked what she made of the 16-year-old’s relationship with her beau, whom she has been dating for just under a year.
“She is getting a lot of hate because she’s in an interracial relationship, he is older,” Mama June said. “At the end of the day, Alana’s not that 6-, 7-year-old child y’all fell in love with 11 years ago. Alana has grown up, she’s graduating high school next year, guys! People need to realize that she’s going to be 17 in August.”
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The 42-year-old also addressed the age difference between her daughter and Dralin, who is 20, saying that Alana’s sister Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon was the same age when she fell in love with her husband, Joshua Efird, which appeared to imply that she didn’t take any issue with it. In fact, during a chat with Entertainment Tonight on Monday, Mama June revealed she has met Dralin and finds him to be a great guy — though she did express that there was one thing he could work on. “He’s good. He needs to hold down a job a little bit more,” she laughed.
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“I mean, he’s not bad. He doesn’t treat her bad or anything like that. … They’re [young] … So, if they last? Fine. If they don’t, it can be her first love.” Alana and Dralin started seeing one another in August but didn’t go public with their relationship until the following month, in a doting snap posted to the former beauty pageant’s Instagram handle.
The reaction from fans in the comment section seemed mixed, with some people asking how Alana’s mom could have approved of her daughter to see a man who’s four years older than her. Another person wrote, “Honey boo boo’s new boyfriend is 20?? Girl is 16,” while another wrote, “Jail. Jail. Jail. Jail. Where are her parents?”
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Alana refrained from posting any other photos of her and Dralin until last month when she shared a snap of the two holding hands in a park. The pic was reportedly taken in McIntyre, Georgia, with that particular state’s age of consent being 16.
In August 2021, the former TLC star did an interview with Teen Vogue, where she revealed that she doesn’t tend to hang around many people, nor does she have many friends because she worries that those who enter her life are coming with the wrong intentions. “I feel like folks are so much like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m friends with Honey Boo Boo,’ To be honest, I do not have many friends. At all. I don’t trust nobody really, so I don’t have friends.”