Mama June Shannon has been a controversial figure in reality TV for a long time, and that’s putting it lightly. She’s been attracting headlines ever since she appeared on Toddlers and Tiaras with her daughter, Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson. Since then, Mama June has appeared in shows of her own, including her upcoming Mama June: Family Crisis.
June has had it pretty rough over the years, and not always by fault of her own. She’s faced plenty of criticism over the example she’s set for her daughters, as well as the various legal disputes regarding issues of family, which her new show will dip into further.
It’s fairly common knowledge that June had a cocaine addiction. She was arrested in 2019 for drug possession along with her ex, Geno Doak. The two went to rehab and parted ways, and June is now three years sober, with her life seemingly on an incline to better things, including her loving husband, Justin Stroud.
Mama June gets vulnerable about her past
In an exclusive with Daily Mail, Mama June shared greater detail about what her life was like before sobriety, voicing her regret in spending over $1 million on cocaine. She said, “I would be like, ‘Man, why in the hell did I blow all that money?’ I am always thinking about that. I think about a lot of things I could do with that money. My husband tells me all the time that I can’t dwell on it.”
She went on to say she often feels self-hatred over the poor decisions she made in the past. While she has trouble remembering, she says that spending all that money was “the biggest, stupidest thing [she’s] done.” She seems to be much more frugal now if the cost of her wedding is anything to go off of.
June further expressed frustration over doctors who often don’t take her seriously. In general, doctors don’t always listen to women, but all the more when they’re former addicts like Mama June. It might be easy for us to judge along with the doctors, but escaping an addiction is a difficult thing, and she deserves some credit there.
And while June isn’t struggling with drug spending anymore, life still puts her through the wringer in many ways. Her other daughter, Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell was diagnosed with stage 4 adrenal carcinoma, an experience no one would wish on a mother. How Mama June and the family will cope with this development will be seen on her show.
Mama June: Family Crisis airs Fridays at 9 p.m. EST on WE tv.
TELL US – WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MAMA JUNE’S TRANSFORMATION OVER THE YEARS? HAVE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT HER CHANGED OVER TIME?
