5 Minutes Ago: Michael Cardwell Exposed by Alana Thompson Shocking Secrets Right Before Custody Trial with Mama June Shannon!

The bitter court battle between Mama June Shannon and her former son-in-law Michael Cardwell for custody of Kaitlyn Shannon rages on.

The Ashley can reveal that the custody hearing to see if Kaitlyn— the daughter of the late Anna Cardwell— will live with her grandmother June or her former stepdad Michael began on Thursday and was continued and picked up (in another county) on Friday. It is unknown if the hearing requires additional time, or if the decision has been made as to who will get custody of Kaitlyn.

Days before the trial, though, June’s daughter Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson took to her personal Facebook page to express her devastation that Kaitlyn and Anna’s younger daughter, Kylee, have been split up. (Because Kylee is Michael’s biological daughter, she automatically went to live with him following Anna’s death in December. Kaitlyn– whose bio father is unknown— has been living with June since her mom’s death.)

Alana also called out Michael and his fiancé London Smith for allegedly keeping Kylee away from them in the months since she’s been living with them.

“I want to speak up about this situation involving my niece because I feel it’s important,” Alana wrote in a post, along with a Facebook post made by London featuring The Ashley’s story link. “I have no hard feelings towards Michael or London personally… However, let’s not pretend that people haven’t been texting Michael all the time, trying to see Kylee or take her out for lunch, only to receive no response or lame excuses.”

Alana went on to claim that she and her family have tried to get Kylee and Kaitlyn together.

“We’ve made multiple attempts for these girls to see each other because, for as long as I can remember, it’s always been Kaitlyn and Kylee. Michael knows this very well,” Alana wrote. “For him and London to keep Kylee from us because of their personal feelings is really unfair. As adults, everyone should be able to put their feelings aside and let Kaitlyn and Kylee see each other, no matter how much animosity or issues there are.”

As The Ashley previously reported, Michael filed for custody of Kaitlyn shortly after Anna’s death. While he is not the biological father of the 11-year-old, he has been in her life since she was eight months old. Following his divorce from Anna in 2017, Michael would still take both girls— not just Kylee– during his custodial visits.)

Michael stated in his custody lawsuit paperwork that he is against June getting custody of Kaitlyn, declaring that June has been “inconsistent” in Kaitlyn’s life, due to Anna’s long periods of estrangements from her mom.

“Both [Michael and Anna] understood, acknowledged, accepted and behaved as though [Michael] is a parent of the child and accepted full and permanent responsibilities as a parent of the child without expectation of financial compensation,” the documents filed by Michael in December state.

In her Facebook post, Alana stated that she knows her sister Anna would hate that her girls weren’t seeing each other.

“Anyone who truly knew Anna would know that she loved her kids and always wanted Kaitlyn and Kylee to be together. Those girls have only ever known each other and separating them is not what Anna would have wanted,” Alana wrote. “Everyone involved should be mature enough to recognize that and do what’s best for Kaitlyn and Kylee.

“I just hope that in the near future, everyone can set their differences aside and do what’s best for these girls. The ones hurting the most are the ones without their mama,” she added, later telling someone in the comment section that the custody battle for Kaitlyn is taking a toll on both kids.

“It’s just causing more and more pain for the girls,” Alana wrote. “They’ve already been through so much with losing their mom, especially Kaitlyn, who is a preteen and just finished her first year of middle school. There are a lot of changes happening in her life, and this situation only adds to the stress she’s already dealing with.”

Alana then stated that Kaitlyn wants to live with June, whom Alana says has been a good parent to Kaitlyn over the past few months.

“As for right now, Kaitlyn has expressed where she wants to go, but I’ll leave it up to her to share that with you,” she wrote. “Yes, my mom has a bad past, but she has really stepped up for Kaitlyn. I can say 100% that she and Justin both make sure Kaitlyn is ready for her dances, gets to school on time, completes her schoolwork, and is doing well in her classes. They ensure she has an environment where she feels comfortable and safe to talk.

“I am very proud of how Justin and Mama have handled things with Kaitlyn so far.”

June eventually hopped into the post’s comment section as well, to accuse Michael of trying to get custody of Kaitlyn for financial reasons.

“[The kids] are not money symbols because, honestly the only reason that Michael is able to do what he’s doing is because he has equity in [Kaitlyn], which means he spent money on her schooling because he didn’t want to pay child support to their mother for his biological child,” June claimed.

She also stated that she has not kept Kaitlyn away from Kylee or Michael over the last few months.

“[I’ve] never denied them the right to see Kaitlyn,” June wrote. “They know that but them not contacting us for saying something and we can’t do s**t about it. I hope one day they will come to us and we can see Kylee and the girl[s can] see each other…  I have not [kept] anyone from Kaitlyn. They have direct contact and always have. I have tried, Pumpkin has tried but we get told no and I got blocked.”

In an Instagram post made earlier this month, London stated that they haven’t seen Kaitlyn since December, and their attempts to reach out to Kaitlyn rarely get a response.

“We text her tablet and we may or may not get a response,” London wrote. “I think they monitor her tablet with like parental control.”