Mama June Admits ‘I’m Not a Perfect Parent,’ Discusses Her Relationship With Child Molester

TLC(NEW YORK) — TLC cancelled Here Comes Honey Boo Boo last month on the heels of a report that the show’s matriarch, “Mama June” Shannon, was dating Mark McDaniel, a man who was previously convicted of molesting her oldest daughter, Anna.

While Shannon has long maintained that she hasn’t been involved with McDaniel since he went to jail for his crime, she did say during an appearance on Dr. Phil Monday that they have seen each other twice recently. On one of those occasions, she and McDaniel didn’t speak. The second time, her 14-year-old daughter, whom she calls Pumpkin, requested the visit, Shannon said, because he helped raise her and she had questions for him.

“I’m not a perfect parent. I made a mistake,” she said. But, “I want you to know that I’m not in a relationship with Mark McDaniel. I’m not in a relationship at all.”

That includes with “Sugar Bear” Mike Thompson, Shannon’s longtime partner and the father to her youngest daughter, Alana. The two split this past September. She and Sugar Bear both told Dr. Phil that it was his wandering eye that caused the split.

“I couldn’t leave the women on Facebook and texting alone,” he admitted, before telling Dr. Phil that he’s living in his family’s house again, though he’s not romantically involved with Shannon. “I’m helping take care of things.”

However, their family life is still far from perfect. Shannon, 35, said she knows how betrayed Anna feels by her visit with McDaniel, and added that she didn’t know Anna’s “side of the story” until two and a half years ago.

“I told Anna how sorry I am. We talk almost every day,” she said, though she added that Anna “lied about certain things too.” “I do in a way feel like I failed to protect Anna but I didn’t know and she admitted that too. I was at work when this happened.”

However, Shannon isn’t convinced that her controversy is the sole reason for the show’s cancellation, nor is she completely sad to have her time on reality TV come to an end.

“Honestly, after two and a half years, I could tell the girls were starting to get wore [sic] down,” she said. “You could tell that they were starting to not want to do it anymore.”