Yikes. Mama June sat down for the first time since her daughter Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell claimed June’s ex-boyfriend, Mark McDaniel, molested her at the age of 8 and admitted not only she believes that “something did happen” to Anna, but that she also dated another registered sex offender named Michael Anthony Ford — and he’s daughter Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon‘s real dad!
In case you missed it, Anna, who claims she was molested by McDaniel and that June is still dating McDaniel, told Dr. Drew during an interview earlier this week that Pumpkin (June’s second youngest daughter) thinks McDaniel is her real father. Mama June, who started off the interview with Entertainment Tonight by saying she wants to tell the “truth,” revealed that although, yes, she dated McDaniel, it’s actually fellow registered sex offender Ford (who was once featured on NBC’s To Catch a Predator) that is Pumpkin’s real father.
After admitting that she does think something happened between McDaniel and Anna, Mama June explained that she’s only seen McDaniel twice since he was released from jail and it was to give Pumpkin closure.
“Since two months to almost six years, she knew nobody but him,” Shannon explained of her 14-year-old daughter. “She was starting to resent Anna and she was starting to ask me questions. I can’t answer those questions for Pumpkin. I was sitting right there with twelve other people [and them]. It was a conversation that she wanted answers to: what happened, why did he leave, if he was her real father. He admitted to her, ‘No.’ [And] I had already told her that but, you know, she wanted to hear from both sides of the story.”
The real story, however, Mama June admitted, is that Pumpkin’s biological dad is the same father to her 18-year-old daughter Jessica — registered sex offender Micahel Anthony Ford.
“Jessica and Pumpkin have the same dad, but Jessica’s dad has had nothing to do with her over the years,” Mama June explained. “So, why the hell would I open up that can of worms until today? I lied to my family and told them it was somebody else.”
Mama June also said she has yet to read the court documents which detail Anna’s claims but that she understands why everyone is so upset with her. “I understand that…and honestly it’s not like I’m seeing him everyday, I promise,” she told ET. “I wanted to be able to give one of my other daughters closure and now Pumpkin is happy, that piece of our life is over.”
