Mama June Shannon has been through an "adjustment" since getting custody of her granddaughter.
Mama June Shannon has been through an 'adjustment period' since the death of her daughter
The 45-year-old reality star went through a custody battle against her former son-in-law Michael Cardwell following the death of her daughter Anna 'Chickadee' Cardwell - who passed away in December 2023 at the age of 29 following a battle with cancer - to obtain the guardianship of their child Kaitlyn, 12, and she admitted that it had caused a big change in her new relationship with Justin Stroud.
She told People: "Kaitlyn's been here for over a year now because they lived in the house where Anna passed away and she's getting adjusted.
"She definitely reminds us of Anna. I tell a lot of people that if you want to know what Anna looked like as a teenager, Kaitlyn. Attitude, the way she talks, the way she acts, everything is Anna to a f****** T!
"Her just not being here for the girls and a lot of s*** has happened. We had to go through a custody battle that we won. We had to also deal with Michael taking [his other daughter] Kylee away from everybody here and moving to Alabama.
"It is kind of an adjustment for me and Justin because honestly, the first year of our relationship, we didn't have any kids in the house.
The 'Mama June: Family Crisis' star also noted that she has tried to make Anna's widower Eldridge Toney - whom she married just weeks before her death - feel welcome in the family and they are all just trying to "really figure it out" a year on from the tragedy.
She said:"And then it came where Anna and Eldridge and the kids moved into our house before she passed away and now Kaitlyn's there and it's just an adjustment period.
"But it's not a bad one because if something's going on, I'm going to call [my daughter] Pumpkin and then put it in our family group chat and say, 'Hey, this is going on...'
"And we just try to, I'll be honest with you, even with Eldridge, we try to bring him in because Anna would want [him] to be a part of it, for sure.
"So we do bring Eldridge in a lot on some stuff and then some stuff we just keep as a family and just try to really figure it out."