Honey Boo Boo and BF Dralin Carswell Deal With Legal Troubles Amid Colorado Move: Relationship Timeline

January 2021

Alana confessed that she had a boyfriend on social media for the first time.

During an Instagram Live Q&A, a follower asked the then-15-year-old if she was in a relationship and Alana happily responded, “Yessss.”

September 2021

One month after turning 16, Alana made Dralin Instagram official in a photo wearing identical T-shirts while visiting a pumpkin patch. She let fans know he was her boyfriend by writing “bae” on the snapshot.

Alana later deleted her Instagram photo with Dralin after it became known that he was a 20-year-old student while she was 16 at the time, and he received a storm of criticism over their age difference. “No 20-year-old ADULT have any business ‘dating’ a 16-year-old CHILD,” Philadelphia Magazine‘s editor at large, Ernest Owens, wrote on Twitter. There was nothing illegal about their romance, as the age of consent in Georgia, where the couple lives, is 16.

In Touch confirmed Dralin was arrested for statutory rape in May 2019 for an incident that happened before he began his relationship with Alana. He was accused of making a false statement to police, and the charge was later adjudicated in June 2021 after Dralin agreed to a number of conditions, including seeing an addiction specialist and undergoing drug and alcohol screens.

April 2022

Dralin celebrated Easter with Alana and her family, showing how their relationship was still going strong. Her older sister and guardian, Lauryn, has expressed her total support for the couple.

Lauryn is Alana’s legal guardian, and she revealed she adored her little sister’s boyfriend. “Me and my husband love Dralin. He’s very respectful and treats Alana with the utmost respect,” she told The Sun in an interview months later, adding, “He is around us and our kids a bunch also and we love him for Alana.” Lauryn and husband Joshua Efird were already parents to daughter Ella Grace, born in 2017, and son Bentley Jameson, who arrived in July 2021. The couple welcomed fraternal twins, son Sylus Ray and daughter Stella Renae, on May 19, 2022.

July 2022

Alana revealed in an interview that she doesn’t care about the “haters” when it comes to the couple’s romance and age difference. “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,” Alana told ET, adding, “I don’t care because, like, at the end of the day, my sister approves, his mom approves, and we’re happy, so what fans got to say or what haters got to say I don’t really care.”

February 2023

Dralin was arrested on February 28 for driving under the influence, In Touch confirmed on March 2.
He was released on a $25,000 bond after spending two days behind bars, according to online records viewed by In Touch. Carswell was charged with one count of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, one count of DUI — less safe — drugs, and various unsafe driving charges.
According to the Monroe County Reporter – who was first to report the news of his arrest – Alana was in the car during the incident which resulted in a police pursuit ending with a PIT maneuver.

April 2023

Alana and Dralin attended the reality TV personality’s senior prom. The former child star looked like a pageant queen all over again as she donned a pink sleeveless gown that was completely bedazzled. 

July 2023

After supporting Alana at her high school graduation in June, the couple are set to relocate to Colorado as the reality star continues her education at Regis University for nursing.

“I’ll be moving off campus for security reasons and because Dralin is coming with me,” Alana said. “I think he’s more excited to move there than me. He’s ready to move out of our small town and experience something new too.”

Honey Boo Boo continued, “I think [living together will] be good for us honestly and I mean, I think it will be fun. Even though I’m moving halfway across the country, it’ll be good for me.”

June 2024

Honey Boo Boo revealed during the June 14, 2024, episode of Mama June: Family Crisis that Dralin was sent a court notice in the mail but failed to receive the document in a timely manner due to their mail being forwarded from Georgia. 

“Courts gonna be in less than a week and he has no lawyer, no flights home, nothing has been booked or planned,” she told cameras in a teaser shared by Access Hollywood. In a private confessional, she added, “I didn’t know about this, he didn’t know about this, and like now, we’re really at crunch time because what are we suppose to do now.”