Here comes Mama June! The 42-year-old reality star is a newlywed after she married her boyfriend Justin Stroud, 34, at the end of March. June confirmed the news, which was first reported by The Sun, in an Instagram post on June 1. Alongside a video of herself and her new hubby, the reality star wrote, “I know you guys been seeing it all over the Internet so we are here to clear up some of the rumors YES me and @officialsmallz1Really got married back in march 23 on our six month anniversary and yes it was so spur the moment.” June also told her fans to follow the couple’s “love story” by tuning into her show on WE TV, Mama June: Road To Redemption.
June and Justin sparked engagement rumors in early March after they were seen shopping for rings together at a jewelry store in Alabama. A clerk allegedly confirmed to The Sun that June married her younger beau in a Georgia courthouse a few months after meeting via TikTok.
Before the big news was revealed, June opened up to HollywoodLife on the HollywoodLife Podcast about her newfound love. “We became friends originally, and he didn’t know who Mama June was when he met me. He didn’t know I had just gotten out of a domestic violence situation, he didn’t know what was going on in my life… and I didn’t honestly tell him what was going on,” she explained. “I had been told I wasn’t his type, that he wasn’t single. But it turns out I was his type, and he was single!”
Recall, the reality star has had a difficult few years, dealing with her drug addiction, an abusive relationship with her now-ex Geno Doak, and her eventual estrangement from her daughters Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson, Lauryn ‘Pumpkin’ Shannon, Anna Shannon and Jessica Shannon. “I feel like Justin is God’s way of flashing the last 10 years in front of me, with the overdoses, the relapses, and showing me how I can really be treated like gold if I stay sober,” June told HL. “He was always the one there. He was always the one that would text me at random times when he had no idea what was going on in my life, and that’s really just what made me fall for him.”
While questions about Justin’s criminal past have come to light, June said, “he has made leaps and bounds in his life” and he is a part of the “recovery community.” “Everybody has a past,” she told HL. “I’m so proud of the person that I’ve gotten to see, because has made changes in his life. He tells me all the time, it’s not just for him, but it’s because of me — I made him want to do better.”