YouTube; Instagram
TLC’s Shauna Rae Debuts New Partner and Asks Fans to ‘Refrain From Being Hateful’ Toward Relationship
I Am Shauna Rae star Shauna Rae Lesick has found new love, and she’s asking fans to stay respectful of her relationship.
The TLC star, 24, took to Instagram on Wednesday, December 13, to share a series of photos featuring her new partner. The carousel included selfies of the couple in a car and with Shauna’s dog, as well as snaps of her partner pouring cereal and taking a nap. Shauna covered the person’s face with emojis in the photos, but she assured fans in her caption that she was having a great time in the relationship.
“So I’ve been keeping a secret…for awhile actually. All you really need to know is they make me happy and I don’t know if I’d be as far in my goals without them,” the reality star wrote.
In addition to sharing her update, Shauna made a request for fans to “support” her and “refrain from being hateful toward them or my relationship.”
“You’re welcome to your opinion but if it’s not supportive you can discuss elsewhere,” she continued. “Any hate towards my partner is hate towards me and I don’t tolerate that. I support each and every one of you and I ask for that respect back. Much love y’all! Stay amazing, beautiful, and positive!”
Shauna, whose reality show documents her life as a person living with pituitary dwarfism, was previously in a relationship with a man from Europe named Dan Swygart. Their relationship was shown on season 2 of I Am Shauna Rae. During an appearance on “The Sarah Fraser Show” podcast in April, Dan, 26, reflected on their breakup and the hate they received both in person and online.
“We got very, very close on an emotional level,” he said. “I mean, it never really got physical, we kissed once. Of course, I wasn’t there for long periods of time … So it never really progressed into a relationship.”
As a child, Shauna was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer. Though she received treatment and later entered remission, the disease left her pituitary gland dormant. As a result, she only reached a height of 3 feet 11 inches and came to describe herself as an adult living in the “body of an 8-year-old.”
Dan said on the podcast that many people criticized the relationship, assuming that he was inappropriately attracted to Shauna because of her child-like features.
“With that just came this big, huge amount of hate, and I felt like the world was crushing me because obviously the media and people, YouTubers as well, they categorized me in the most hated group of people on the planet,” he continued. “Obviously, because of Shauna’s condition … they put me in that category. I just felt like that world was crushing me.”
In addition to documenting her medical treatments and other experiences, I Am Shauna Rae takes a close look at the young adult’s dating life, as she’s had trouble navigating relationships with her condition. Shauna revealed on the show that she often “attracts creeps” and has to proceed with caution. She prefers to meet her potential suitors in person before going on dates with them because she needs to see how they react to her appearance.
“My last relationship had ended, specifically, because he didn’t want to go out to a restaurant with me or go out and take a walk with me,” she said in a confessional. “Those are the kind of things that I look for as red flags.”
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