Mama June Shannon is defending her daughter Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson’s interracial relationship with boyfriend Dralin Carswell.
“She is getting a lot of hate because she’s in an interracial relationship, he is older,” the “Mama June: Road to Redemption” star told TooFab on Tuesday of the 16-year-old’s relationship with Carswell, 20. “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!” the 42-year-old reality star added. “People need to realize that she’s going to be 17 in August.”
The “Mama June: From Hot to Not alum” also pointed out that the teenager’s older sister Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon and her husband, Joshua Efird, “were the same age” as Thompson and Carswell when they began dating.
June, who noted that she has met Carswell, recently expressed her approval of Thompson’s beau — as well as one concern.
“He’s good. He needs to hold down a job a little bit more,” she told Entertainment Tonight in an interview published Monday. “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.”
Thompson debuted her relationship with the college student via Instagram in September 2021, one month after reports surfaced that the pair were secretly dating.
“Spooky season,” the “Toddlers & Tiaras” alum captioned a pumpkin patch pic at the time, subsequently deleting the upload amid backlash over their age gap.
“Honey boo boo’s new boyfriend is 20?? Girl is 16,” read one comment. “Jail. Jail jail jail.”
Another added, “16 and 20? Where are her parents?”
Carswell returned to the former pageant queen’s Instagram account in April. The duo were smiling while holding hands in the “park date” photo.
The couple’s outing was near her home in McIntyre, Ga., where the age of consent is notably 16.
Besides Carswell, Thompson doesn’t “have many friends at all,” she told Teen Vogue in August 2021, adding, “I don’t trust nobody really, so I don’t have friends.”
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