Years before Cardwell and her family began starring on TLC's Here Comes Honey Boo Boo reality series, 20-year-old Cardwell was allegedly molested by Mark McDaniel, a convicted and registered sex offender who's currently involved with Shannon, People reported.
When McDaniel dated Shannon over 10 years ago, he "would try and touch me and all that stuff," according to Cardwell, who said this incident occurred when she was only eight-years-old. Shannon apparently didn't believe her daughter's story back then.A week or so after it happened, I talked to Mama and she was upset, crying and saying, 'I don't believe you, I don't believe you, why would you do this to me?'" Cardwell told People. "And I was like, 'Mama, he did that to me and I can't do anything about it. You were never there to see it you were always at work.'"
McDaniel was indicted for aggravated child molestation and aggravated sexual battery on Cardwell in June 2003 for multiple abuse instances which occurred between October 2002 and March 2003, Radar Online reported over the weekend.
While the Henry County district attorney's office reportedly eventually dismissed its charges against McDaniel, he was later convicted on aggravated child molestation charges in another case in nearby Spalding County -- a conviction that resulted in him spending the next 10 years in prison.
Cardwell reportedly moved in with her grandmother after the molestation, according to a People source, but moved back in with Shannon in 2012, shortly before Here Comes Honey Boo Boo began.
"Me and Mama realized we needed to put this behind us and get our relationship back on track and that's what we did and that's what we have been doing," Cardwell noted.
Shannon has been publicly denying reports she's dating McDaniel again in recent days, but even TLC felt the situation was valid enough to cancel Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Now, it's apparently Cardwell's turn to be skeptical.
"I'm just confused. I'm hearing one story from Mama and another one from someone else," Cardwell explained. "Mama said the story isn't true and she said she hasn't seen Mark since he's been out of jail."
What Shannon allegedly told her daughter lines up with her recent Facebook statement in which the reality TV star insisted she hasn't even seen McDaniel in 10 years.
However, "compelling evidence" obtained by TMZ has since surfaced of Shannon and McDaniel together -- including a photo of the two of them in a hotel room together and proof Shannon had purchased a used car for the man. In addition, the entertainment website has also published numerous photos that show the pair house-hunting with additional family members, including Shannon's 9-year-old daughter Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, in Hampton, GA last month.
"My whole body believes that she is telling the truth," Cardwell continued, "but my mind is going back and forth from -- you now, hey, she's telling the truth or she's not telling the truth, but most of me believes her."
If it is true that Shannon and McDaniel are back together, Cardwell admitted she'd be very surprised and disappointed.
"I would feel hurt. I would not feel betrayed, but I would feel hurt. You know the past should be in the past and it should stay in the past and not come back out," said Cardwell, who has a two-year-old daughter Kaitlyn. "[But] I would not let her see Kaitlyn unless Mark is out of the picture or away because I don't want him nowhere near my child -- nowhere close to her."
