Latest news with #MamaJune:FromNottoHot
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Honey Boo Boo Reflects on Mama June's Struggle With Drug Addiction and Where They Stand Today
Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson's upcoming Lifetime biopic, I Was Honey Boo Boo, brought some closure to the period in her life where she watched her mom battle drug addiction. 'That was a really hard time for me and I was trying to transition into high school and there was just so much going on in my life at that time,' Thompson, now 19, tells Us Weekly exclusively. 'Plus, everything my mom was doing on top of that was very hard for me. So that was probably one of the hardest things to just revisit.' 'But in a way I think it kind of brought me closure just because being able to finally just say it out loud, kind of just let it get off my chest a little bit and in a way it was light closure for sure,' she added. Here Comes Honey Boo Boo aired on TLC from 2012 to 2017, following the life of Thompson, then a child beauty pageant contestant, and her family, led by mom, June 'Mama June' Shannon. When the spinoff series, Mama June: From Not to Hot, started on WeTV, Shannon began struggling with drugs. She and then-boyfriend Geno Doak were arrested in 2019 on felony drug possession just days after her family staged an intervention for her. 'Here Comes Honey Boo Boo' Stars: Where Are They Now? As her mom's addiction worsened, Thompson noticed a change. 'I just noticed her locking her door and when she locked her bedroom door, it threw me off,' she said. 'But when she started locking her bedroom and bathroom door, that threw me off even more. My mom has always had an open door policy and we can come in and talk about anything to her.' And while Thompson said she never went hungry, she was often left fending for herself for dinner. 'When she got really bad in her addiction, there wasn't home cooked meals,' she said. 'I had to figure it out on my own or I was eating a bowl of cereal or noodles or whatever it was that I could cook at that time.' 'Dark Side of Reality TV' 1st Look Explores Honey Boo Boo's 'Toddlers and Tiaras' Rise to Fame Thompson admitted that for the 'first year or two' after her mom got sober, she worried about her relapsing. Now, Shannon has a few years of sobriety under her belt and it's no longer a worry. 'Now it's like I don't think it's even a thought in my mind just because of how anti-drug she is now,' Thompson explained. 'She doesn't like any drugs. She doesn't smoke cigarettes, she doesn't do alcohol, literally nothing. She doesn't do it. She hates it. So I'm very proud of her and I don't even think that's a concern for me anymore.' 'We're in a really good spot right now,' she added. 'I mean, honestly, I can't put into words how good of a spot we are in right now. It is just perfect. I mean, we don't talk every single day, but we do make sure to communicate with each other.' I Was Honey Boo Boo premieres Saturday, May 17 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson Recalls Days They Had No Food amid Mom's Addiction to Crack Cocaine (Exclusive)
Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson has been a fixture on reality TV ever since her days on Toddlers & Tiaras in 2011. The rambunctious spitfire won over the hearts of fans and snagged multiple spinoff shows featuring her family over the years. But what was her life really like behind the cameras? Alana, now 19, is finally ready to share her side of the story. The former pageant princess' life is being explored in a new Lifetime biopic, I Was Honey Boo Boo, premiering May 17. Among one of the darkest moments that the film depicts is her mother 'Mama June' Shannon's downward spiral into toxic relationships and drug addiction. 'I did not want this movie to be throwing punches at my mama and making her out to be the bad guy,' Alana tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story. 'But I didn't hold back, and if she gets mad, at the end of the day it's the truth.' As Mama June filmed her spinoff series, WeTV's Mama June: From Not to Hot, which first premiered in 2017, she fell into the throes of addiction to crack cocaine. 'I noticed something was off about her,' Alana says. 'She started locking her doors, which really made me think, 'Oh, what is she doing?'" In 2019, Mama June and her then-boyfriend Geno Doak were charged with felony possession of drugs — just days after her family staged an intervention that was captured on Mama June: From Not to then began living with her older sister Lauryn 'Pumpkin' Efird after she told her mom during the intervention she had left "not by choice." "I would love to come home and stay with you, tell you about my day, but I can't do that because I'm scared. I'm scared to stay at your house," Alana said in the 2019 episode. Looking back now, Alana remembers "when Pumpkin came to get me [to live with her], there was no food. Basically, the house had been abandoned." When Alana was 16, Pumpkin was granted full custody of her. Alana recalls the period playing out so publicly on TV. 'People were like, 'I saw your mama on the news with a busted tooth, strung out,'' Alana recalls her classmates saying. 'I'm like, 'Great, like I didn't see that too.'" Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. During the time Alana came under fire for pretending to snort cocaine on social media. 'It was really stupid, but I was young, and Mama wasn't really reaching out. I thought if I do this maybe she'll be like, 'I need to stop because Alana's taking after me.' It didn't work.' As the show rebranded to Mama June: Road to Redemption and, later, Mama June: Family Crisis (which returns May 30), Alana recalls a time a producer 'pulled me aside to say, 'Your mama's not going to look like what you think. She's on drugs. You need to prepare yourself.'' Alana and her sisters confronted Mama June about her drug use, and 'she didn't lie,' Alana says. 'But it didn't matter that she fessed up, because she still wanted to do it.' Though critics have accused the show of being exploitative for showing such events, 'I don't think it was,' says Alana. 'But at times I do feel like the camera should have went away.' Now, she and her mom, who says she's five and a half years sober, have mended their relationship, though Alana says it was "hard." "But at the end of the day, she's my mom. When she was bad in her addiction, I just kept thinking about the day she'd recover," she says. "We're going pretty good. Hopefully it lasts. I just no longer have any expectations for her."I Was Honey Boo Boo premieres Saturday, May 17 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime. Read the original article on People
