We've always appreciated 11-year-old Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson's self-confidence, so we're saddened to hear her dad has promoted the opposite. She recently told Entertainment Tonight that Sugar Bear has ridiculed her size on multiple occasions.
"The other day we were on the phone and we were talking about — I don't know how we got on the subject — but we were talking about something, and he was like, 'I need to cut my grass,' so I was like, 'Yeah, I'll come do it. I'm [going to] need a ride mower,' and he said, 'You're gonna need a push mower, 'cause it wouldn't hurt,'" she said.
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And once, he told her she "didn't get this shape from not eating," she added.
Her mother Mama June Shannon has also witnessed him make such comments. "[He said] 'It wouldn't hurt if you lose weight,' and I think that was the most ignorant thing that he ever told her," she said. "I would never say that."
Mama June recently underwent drastic weight loss on her show Mama June: From Not To Hot to get revenge on Sugar Bear after learning he was marrying someone else. Before she returned home from the last stage of her surgery, Honey Boo Boo expressed concern for her well being.
"They wouldn’t let her come home until they could make sure that she wouldn’t have no nerve damage," she said. "I'm really scared that I’m not even going to recognize who she is."
Upon learning she'd be undergoing surgery, she told her mom, "I think you look fine the way you are."
We hope Honey Boo Boo stays strong and maintains her body-positive attitude in the face of her mom's weight loss and her dad's criticism. But we're not too worried about her. It sounds like she's got better things to think about, like her new boyfriend.
When E! News asked Honey Boo Boo if her mom was jealous of her, she responded, "Probably, because her 11-year-old daughter has a boyfriend but she doesn't." Her favorite quality of his? "His personality."