Honey Boo Boo Addresses Controversy With Mackenzie Ziegler on ‘DWTS: Juniors’

Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson addressed some remarks she recently made about one of her Dancing With The Stars: Juniors rivals, Mackenzie Ziegler, in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

Thompson, 13, posted an all-black square on Instagram, alongside a long statement. In it, she claimed that previous comments she made about Ziegler on Instagram “was all [a] joke at first,” since Ziegler and pro teammate Sage Rosen, are her favorite competitors.

“I know it really sound like I was bushing her but I wasn’t meaning for it to sound like that because I really like Kenzie and I didn’t even mean to start beef I just kinda thought it was crazy because Kenzie texted me and we was [fine],” Thompson wrote.

Thompson said that even though things were good between her and Ziegler, she still got negative comments from Ziegler’s fans after Ziegler talked about her on Instagram Live.

“I started to get hate like [people] telling me to go die or kill myself and much more witch (sic) is really confusing because her fans are telling me to stop hating on her but then they tell me to go die and telling me I’m fat, ugly and so much more hurtful stuff so this is the real story and I’m so sorry it I hurt anybody I never meant to hurt nobody,” Thompson wrote.

The controversy between Thompson and Ziegler appears to date to a long Instagram Live session Thompson had with her sister, Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon, 18. In it, Thompson talks about Ziegler having more experience than the rest of the cast.

The 14-year-old Ziegler gained fame for appearing on Dance Moms for six seasons, a point Thompson and Shannon make in the video, and has also released an album and appeared in TV shows. Thompson also complained about the judges talking more about Ziegler’s singing than dancing.

Thompson previously mentioned how hard it was to be on DWTS: Juniors, specifically bringing up Ziegler in an interview with PEOPLE.

“I did hit a breaking point at one time. Mackenzie Ziegler is on the show and I was like, ‘I’m never going to be better than her,’” Thompson said at the time. “But I kind of got past it because you don’t have to be the best dancer to win. It’s not just about being the best dancer. It’s about having fun, too.”

When Thompson filmed her Instagram Live video and posted her message on Tuesday, she already knew she would be eliminated in Sunday night’s Halloween episode. Unlike the main Dancing With The Stars, DWTS: Juniors was previously filmed over the summer.

Thompson was eliminated after her dance to the Ghostbusters theme song only earned her a second consecutive 21/30 score. Meanwhile, Ziegler got to move on, earning a 25/30 score for her dance to “Monster Mash.”

New episodes of DWTS: Juniors air on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Photo credit: ABC