Mama June and Daughter Can't Keep Molester Visitation Story Straight
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On Monday's episode of Dr. Phil, the talk doc grilled "Mama" June Shannon about her relationship with registered sex offender Mark McDaniel, who molested June's daughter Anna Cardwell. Regarding the public knowledge of her relationship with McDaniel, which led to the cancellation of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, June said, "There's some truths and there's some lies that's out there, and there's the truth between that." She then danced all over the margins she set without ever leaving her seat.
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Predictably, June repeatedly denied a relationship with McDaniel. She says that she has met up with him twice since he's been out of jail. One time was "by coincidence" when their respective families were visiting "the mountains," and the second happened while June was house-hunting. When Phil asked exactly how their paths crossed, June said, "Because I went and gave 33 packs of diapers to his son, and he happened to be there." Seriously, that was her explanation.
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June said that McDaniel raised her daughter Pumkin from the time that Pumkin was two months old to the time that Pumkin was 6. And then June said that McDaniel left when Pumkin was 5. When Pumkin appeared on the show alongside her mother in a later segment, Pumkin said that McDaniel raised her until she was 4. June alleged that she allowed Pumkin to have a "10-minute conversation" with McDaniel to get answers about him leaving the family. Pumkin said she spent an hour with him.
Their accounts of a simple, supposedly air-clearing meeting simply do not match.
"I had a lot of questions, like I asked Mama what happened," said Pumkin on meeting with McDaniel. "I guess I wanted closure on actually who he was. I wanted to actually know for sure if he did what he did." She then said she didn't ask him about the molestation.
Phil asked June if she felt like she had failed to protect Anna. June said, "I do in a way feel like I did fail to protect Anna, but I didn't know. And she admitted that too. I was at work when this happened so I knew nothing, and she never did come to me, anything, the whole time it was happening."
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Whatever the age Pumkin was when McDaniel left the family (presumably to serve his jail sentence for raping a child), it was during the time before that in which June's oldest daughter Anna was molested. June claims she was not aware of Anna's molestation until a few years ago.
"Anna did not tell me, my mother didn't tell me what he was accused of," said June. "I didn't hear Anna's side of the story until she moved in with me two and a half years ago." She also says her daughter "lied about certain things."
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June stood by her claim that the picture of her and McDaniel in bed together, which TMZ used to break this story, was Photoshopped. "If you look at me, I am totally laying in the bed, and if you see the full picture, he is fully dressed," is how she explained it.
Regarding the cancellation of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, June said that even before this scandal, her family was starting to feel "wore down" by the show's filming demands. She says she doesn't think her association with McDaniel was the "full decision of why the show" was yanked off the air. (Logic dictates that it was—Season 4 was filmed in its entirety when TLC pulled the plug. They wouldn't have shot an entire season of a show if they weren't certain that it would broadcast.)
Toward the end of the interview, Dr. Phil asked June, "What do you say to the haters?" June responded, " The haters are gonna hate. The people who hate us don't really know us and then the lies now that I tried commiting suicide by taking over-the-counter pills with Alanna. I have never had a suicidal bone in my body. I would never take pain pills. I don't do that, you know I'm sayin'?"
[There was a video here]