Honey Boo Boo, 16, claps back at critics as she poses with boyfriend, 21, in new pic after he was once accused of rape
HONEY Boo Boo has shared a photo with her boyfriend, Dralin Carswell, with a message about their relationship.
The teenager gushed over her 21-year-old beau on .
The pair posed for a photo in front of a large rock structure at the Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado.
Honey Boo Boo - whose birth name is Alana Thompson - wrapped her arm around her boyfriend as they smiled for the snap.
The 16-year-old wore black leggings, a white hoodie, and white sneakers for the trip.
She appeared to wear no makeup and let her naturally curly locks flow down.
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Dralin sported gray pants, a white t-shirt, white sneakers, and a sweatshirt tied at his waist for the outing.
Alana appeared to clap back at online trolls, scrutinizing her and Dralin's romance in her caption.
She wrote: "stronger than ever" alongside a pink-heart emoji.
The photo comes hours after she shared a concerning post on Instagram, seemingly alluding to her feeling mistreated on social media.
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At the same time, fans wondered if Alana and Dralin had parted ways following the news of his previous arrest.
ALLEGATIONS
Earlier this month, The Sun obtained documents that revealed that Dralin was arrested on May 29, 2019, and was initially charged with statutory rape.
Police also released his 2019 mugshot.
Alana was not the alleged victim in this case, and it appeared the incident happened before he and the Mama June Road to Redemption star started dating.
According to the police report, the alleged victim's mother brought her daughter into the police department and claimed that Dralin, who was 18 at the time, climbed through her daughter's window and had sex with the minor, who was 15.
In the report, the officer wrote that they interviewed the minor.
"I asked the daughter if it was consensual, and she stated 'Yes.'"
The minor told the officer, "her plan with Carswell was for him to come to the house, and while there, they had consensual unprotected sex in her bedroom."
Dralin allegedly told the police the minor "was his girlfriend, and they had talked about him coming to her house... but he did not actually go to the house."
He told police he was at his friend's home all day and night; however, in police interviews with the friends he claimed he was with, two of them told the investigators they had dropped him off at the minor's home and picked him back up over an hour later.
The friends allegedly told the police that when they picked Dralin up, he "was scared and told them to drive fast" because the minor's "mama had caught him inside the house."
Dralin was initially charged with statutory rape but ultimately completed a pretrial diversion program that resulted in the dismissal of a claim for making a false statement to law enforcement.
During the pretrial diversion hearing in June 2021, he agreed to fulfill the terms of the program in exchange for a dismissal.
The assistant district attorney said during the hearing that Dralin "was charged with statutory rape, misdemeanor grade" however, "Based on the evidence, we didn't feel like we could prove the statutory rape but could prove making a false statement."
The documents also stated this was the first time he had been in trouble with the law.
STICKING BY HER MAN
Amid the controversy, Alana - who has been dating Dralin for more than a year - defended her boyfriend in an interview with .
The high school student said: "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.
"I don't care because, at the end of the day, my sister approves, his mom approves, and we're happy.
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"So what fans got to say or what haters got to say, I don't really care."
The teen added that despite the age gap, she and Dralin are "always talking about something — it's never like an awkward moment, silence or none of that."
