Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efird’s divorce from ex-husband Josh Efird will be a focal point on Mama June: Family Crisis season 7. Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson and mom June “Mama June” Shannon react to their split with In Touch in an exclusive video interview ahead of the premiere.
“I’m not gonna say I was completely surprised just because, I mean, I lived there, I knew what was going on. I was old enough. They didn’t like hide anything, you know?” Alana, 19, tells In Touch.
The Toddlers and Tiaras alum admits that she “knew what was going on,” but “didn’t, like, want it to happen.”
“I wanted them to fix it every other time they just, you know, fix it. So, I thought like they would just fix it, but it got worse than it normally does,” she continues. “I mean, at the end of the day, Pumpkin wasn’t happy. So, I get where she was coming from.”
June, 45, on the other hand, admits that she “knew for many years” that Lauryn and Josh were “bound to” separate.
June Shannon, Alana Thompson and Lauryn Efird.
“[Lauryn] could even say to her own mouth, like, I think Anna passing away opened our eyes to a lot of things that were happening around us that we were just kind of like, ‘Oh,’” the family matriarch explains of Anna Cardwell, who died at just 29 years old in December 2023 following her battle with cancer. “We [were] on back burner when Anna passed away. It was an eye-opener for all of us.”
Josh, 28, and Lauryn, 25, were young and in love when they tied the knot in April 2018. The former couple welcomed daughter Ella in 2017, son Bentley in 2021 and twins Sylus Ray and Stella Renae the following year.
The pair were no strangers to sharing their marital issues, which often centered around June and her legal woes that stemmed from substance abuse and addiction.
“I honestly think that our main issue is just everything that’s going on with my mom,” Lauryn told In Touch in April 2021. “We’ve been together since we were kids and now, we’re adults.”
After six years of marriage, Lauryn filed for divorce from Josh in August 2024 in Wilkinson County, Georgia, and cited that their union was “irretrievably broken.” They separated one month prior, and their divorce was finalized in September 2024.
One month after their split, Lauryn and Josh started seeing other people. At the time, TMZ reported that Lauryn was dating her current boyfriend, Darrin Kitchens, and Josh was dating a woman named Keely.
On Wednesday, May 28, Lauryn revealed to Entertainment Tonight that she was still going strong with her boyfriend, but did not mention Darrin by name. The TLC star also shared that Josh was living with his girlfriend, while she remains in their former family home.
“It’s like a when you know, you know, situation,” Lauryn told the outlet. “The person that I’m with now, compared to what I was getting and what I was perceiving as a happy marriage or happy relationship. Now, I really see that definition.”
Mama June: Family Crisis returns Friday, May 30, at 8pm ET/PT, airing exclusively on We TV and streaming on ALLBLK and AMC+.
