Mama June Shannon has certainly had her share of ups and downs since becoming a reality TV personality with her daughter Alana Thompson on Toddlers & Tiaras. After getting their own spinoff, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, the matriarch battled weight loss and drug addiction in the public eye. This last year, though, seems to have been particularly trying, after her oldest daughter, Anna Cardwell, was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and another daughter, Lauryn Efird, gained custody of Alana. In light of what the family has been going through, Shannon opened up about her current relationship with her daughters.
Anna Cardwell, aka “Chickadee” has been undergoing treatment for Stage 4 adrenal carcinoma since January, the family confirmed earlier this year. Mama June Shannon said they know what the “endgame” is, and that’s apparently what has brought the family together, as they face “one of the biggest fights [we] have ever fought in our whole entire life." She told E! News:
We are in each other's lives. We're going through a lot right now. We're doing it day by day. We're just doing it all together, and we're trying to fight the storm all together.
It’s not hard to see how Anna Cardwell’s battle might put some things into perspective for the family members during this tough time, but the relationship between the mother and daughter had been rocky for years. Cardwell has spoken in the past about being molested when she was 8 years old by Mama June’s then-boyfriend Mark McDaniel. McDaniel served 10 years in prison for the crime but reunited with the reality TV mom upon his release. In 2015, Cardwell also sued her mother for $300,000, per People, for unpaid appearances on Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.
Anna Cardwell’s cancer, like Mama June Shannon said, is the biggest obstacle they’ve faced yet, acknowledging that these are hard but real things that families go through. Shannon said to E! News:
It's real life. It's real life issues that everybody deals with every day, the struggles that we are dealing with as a family.
The diagnosis came months after Mama June Shannon lost custody of Honey Boo Boo herself, Alana Thompson, with the former Toddlers & Tiaras star choosing in June 2022 to remain under the care of Lauryn "Pumpkin" Efird. Pumpkin was first awarded temporary guardianship of her little sister in 2019, after Shannon was arrested on charges of possession of crack cocaine.
The mom told Page Six in the weeks following the court’s decision that she and Alana Thompson still had a good relationship, and they spoke frequently. The mother-daughter pair even had “emotional experience” on The Masked Singer, as they appeared together as the Beach Ball in 2021.
Hopefully despite all of Mama June Shannon’s struggles with her daughters, they really can band together in support of Anna Cardwell and her two daughters, who are 7 and 10 years old. Shannon’s reality show Mama June: Family Crisis continues to portray her and her daughters’ lives — minus Cardwell’s — including the custody arrangement, so tune into WE tv at 9 p.m. Fridays for new episodes, and check out our 2023 TV schedule to see what other premieres are coming soon.
