Mama June Shannon‘s nest just got a little bigger.
The Here Comes Honey Boo Boo alum was awarded temporary custody of her 11-year-old granddaughter Kaitlyn following the death of June’s daughter Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell, according to multiple outlets.
June, 44, filed a petition in Georgia for a change in child custody and “for emergency ex parte relief,” meaning under emergency circumstances. She said Kaitlyn moved in with her a month before Anna died of cancer in December and that she’s been caring for the tween since.
Anna never publicly shared the identity of Kaitlyn’s father, although she raised her with ex-husband Michael Cardwell—along with their daughter Kylee, 8—before the couple’s 2017 split.
“If it wasn’t for her I would [not] be a mother,” Anna wrote on Instagram in 2022. “She is the smartest and sassiest little girl I know and I am so proud of her.”
She went on to marry Eldridge Toney in March 2023, with her younger sister Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efird serving as officiant at the private Georgia wedding.
