Mama June, 42, no longer has full custody of her daughter Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson, 16. A Georgia judge has awarded Lauryn ‘Pumpkin’ Shannon, 22, full custody of her younger sister, according to court documents obtained by HollywoodLife. The custody order was issued in April 2022, and reportedly declares that Mama June, whose real name is June Shannon, must pay her daughter Pumpkin $800 per month in child support until Alana turns 18 years old in August 2023.
As Alana’s legal guardian, Pumpkin will control the “visitation between the defendant [June] and the minor [Alana],” per the court documents. Both parties, meaning June and Pumpkin, reportedly came to an agreement for the final custody ruling. Pumpkin has four other children with her husband Josh Efird: 4-year-old daughter Ella Grace, 10-month-old son Bentley Jameson, and newborn twins who were born on May 19.
June’s custody of Alana has been in jeopardy ever since 2019, when June and her then-boyfriend Geno Doak were arrested on drug possession charges. Pumpkin was subsequently awarded temporary guardianship of Alana, who has been living with her older sister since then. All this wild family drama has been explored on We TV’s Mama June: Family Crisis.
Aside from the custody situation, June seems to have turned her life around. She’s apparently more than two years sober and is no longer dating Geno. Instead, the reality star got married to her boyfriend Justin Stroud, 34, in late March after a few months of dating. The couple tied the knot in secret in a courthouse ceremony in Georgia. Before the big news was revealed, June, who met her man via TikTok, opened up to HollywoodLife on the HollywoodLife Podcast about her newfound love.
“We became friends originally, and he didn’t know who Mama June was when he met me. He didn’t know I had just gotten out of a domestic violence situation, he didn’t know what was going on in my life… and I didn’t honestly tell him what was going on,” she explained. “I had been told I wasn’t his type, that he wasn’t single. But it turns out I was his type, and he was single!”