‘It’s Gonna Take Some Time’: Honey Boo Boo Gets Brutally Honest About Her Mom and Her Future
From arrests to stolen money, her life is just as wild as it was when she was little
When Honey Boo Boo—a.k.a. Alana Thompson—first appeared on Toddlers & Tiaras in 2012, people were quick to notice how much star power she had. She then went on to have her own show later that same year, entitled Here Comes Honey Boo Boo which ran from 2012 to 2014. She was also on her mother, June Shannon’s, spinoff series, Mama June: Family Crisis, which began airing in 2017. But what has life looked like for Honey Boo Boo since her life went off the air? Below, we examine what she’s doing now and her current relationship with her mother following an explosive money scandal. Read on for more.
Where is Honey Boo Boo now?
Since leaving the pageant and reality TV life behind, Thompson has begun studying neonatal nursing at Regis University in Denver, Colorado. She had been there since 2023.
“I really want to be a neonatal nurse, so I want to work with little babies. I don’t want to have no babies, though. That’s my motto,” Thompson told People magazine in 2024. “I’m just looking forward to helping people.”
Who is Honey Boo Boo’s boyfriend, Dralin Carswell?
She also has a boyfriend named Dralin Carswell, whom she began dating in 2021. However, their relationship has been met with a lot of controversy as Thompson was 16 and Carswell was 21 when they started seeing each other.
“In our relationship, the two most things that everybody is always talking about is our age gap and definitely because he’s Black and I’m white and we’re an interracial couple,” Thompson told Entertainment Tonight in July 2022. “I don’t care because, like, at the end of the day, my sister approves, his mom approves, and we’re happy, so what fans got to say or what haters got to say, I don’t really care.”
Following that, the couple made headlines again after he was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence and then fleeing from the police in a three-mile car chase. Thomason was in the car, but only Carswell was charged and is currently facing up to 10 years in prison.
“Honestly, if Dralin goes to jail and Alana ends up giving up her nursing career, it would be the most stupidest thing ever,” Shannon said in a recent episode of Mama June: Family Crisis. “I used to put men first and what they wanted and all that, and gave [up] a lot of my life, but I hope that she does not do that.”
What Honey Boo Boo says about her relationship with Mama June
Mama June was arrested in March 2019 after developing an addiction to crack cocaine. It was then revealed in 2023 that Shannon spent $35,000 of the Dancing With the Stars appearance money to help fund her addiction. This caused a huge rift between the two.
“I let my mama drag me through a lot of s—, but I think my breaking point was when she stole my money,” Thompson told People in May. “I thought about suing her at one point, but I just know that I wouldn’t probably get anything out of the end of the bargain because, by law, she did what was right. By law, she at least put 20 percent in my account. And the other 80, she said that she used to take care of me. So the law, I feel like, wouldn’t see really a problem with what she did, I guess.”
Since then, though, the two have begun to rebuild their relationship, and in a recent episode of Mama June: Family Crisis, Shannon even gave her daughter a $30,000 check to help pay her back.
“Of course, this money is gonna help me pay for school and help me get the education that I want, but at the end of the day, it was the principal, and it’s like it should have never happened,” Thompson said in the episode. “Still, don’t ever think I’ll get over the fact that my mom stole my money. We’re good as far as the money, but like, deep down, it’s gonna take some time. This isn’t just like a little hurdle to jump over. This is like a whole mountain to climb over.”
Shannon has three other children, one of whom tragically died from cancer in 2023 at age 29.
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