Behind Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson’s pageant dresses and charismatic personality was a little girl navigating a storm of chaos, emotional neglect and her mom’s drug addiction.
In her new Lifetime biopic, “I was Honey Boo Boo,” Thompson pulls back the curtain on the trauma she endured while growing up in the spotlight, beginning at the young age of 6.
“For me, it’s not about fame, and it’s not about the money,” she said. “Honestly, my story is simple. It’s about a mom and a daughter and breaking the cycle of emotional abuse.”
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Thompson was the star of multiple reality television shows, including “Toddlers and Tiaras,” “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” and “Mama June: Family Crisis.”
Now 19 years old, Thompson revealed how her on-screen confidence concealed the harsh reality of constant criticism and family struggles, particularly with her mother, June “Mama June” Shannon.
“My mama put men, money and eventually even drugs ahead of me,” Thompson began her biopic, narrating the movie.
Thompson rose to fame during her breakout on “Toddlers & Tiaras,” which would eventually lead to her spinoff, “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.”
She recalled the moment she stopped being a daughter and became a dollar sign to Mama June.
A scene in her biopic showed Thompson being scouted for the TLC series.
“The cycle of pain started even before I could recognize it. It started when my mom looked at me, and, for the first time, she just didn’t see me. She saw her own potential,” Thompson remarked.
As the former child star continued to vie for her mother’s attention, her reality show, “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” became an “overnight hit.”
“Everything was going well for us. Young and naïve me loved every minute of it. Mama told me over and over again how important I was to her, and I loved being her little moneymaker. It made me feel special. This was our thing, and I finally gave her something no one else could.”
However, Thompson confessed that feeling quickly took a turn.
“But with all the money coming in, things were changing. And the truth of who Mama really was, wasn’t far behind.”
Behind closed doors were forced smiles and silent tears, and the biopic highlighted how fame nearly ruined the family’s foundation.
The biopic continued to highlight bitter fights, cheating allegations and the life-changing moment when Thompson’s family, including her father, “Sugar Bear” Thompson, was involved in a car crash in 2014.
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After the family’s car collided with a truck, Mama June decided she was going to leave Thompson’s father.
In “I Was Honey Boo Boo,” a scene shows the family moving to Georgia, and the actress who portrayed Mama June announces she had bought a home for “a quarter of a million dollars” all because of her “little moneymaker.”
Thompson went on to share her roller coaster of a life and recalled the moment Mama June was absent from her life.
Once their reality show was canceled, Thompson admitted, she “felt lost” without it.
“But now that I wasn’t mama’s little moneymaker, she didn’t need me anymore,” she remarked.
“It was hard, it was definitely a big change for me, going from my mom being there 24/7 to not being there at all. At the time, I didn’t understand that her love was only transactional.”
However, in the “I Was Honey Boo Boo” biopic, there is a moment where things started to take a positive turn for Mama June.
The movie briefly highlights her 300-pound weight-loss journey, going under the knife before her new reality show, “Mama June: From Not to Hot.”
As the dramatic transformation may have been seen as positive by fans, it made Thompson feel worse about herself.
As pounds were shed, a darker side of her mother emerged, one Thompson had trouble understanding as a young girl.
Thompson started to ask herself if she needed to lose weight too.
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The pressure to match her mom’s “glow up” left Thompson questioning her own self-worth.
“The glow up that Mama had, as a young girl, it made me think you needed to have surgery to look good,” she reflected.
As a child who admittedly struggled with weight, she couldn’t help but wonder, “Do I look OK? My mama looks good now.”
While “Honey Boo Boo” dealt with another dramatic life change, she later revealed that she discovered just how deep her mother’s drug addiction ran.
Mama June wasn’t just battling weight; she was battling drugs.
“I didn’t get why mom chose drugs over me,” Thompson recalled, recalling a time she was explicitly warned not to tell anyone about Mama June’s drug habit.
“If someone finds out, you’ll be taken away from me and sent to foster care,” the actress who portrayed Mama June says in the biopic.
Thompson described the deep, quiet fear instilled in her by her mother.
Things quickly spiraled out of control. With Mama June slipping deeper into addiction, Thompson was forced to live with her sister.
“I was scared to find out that my mom might die,” she admitted. “I was scared for her but worried that she’d die.”
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In 2019, Shannon and her boyfriend, Geno Doak, were arrested on suspicion of drug possession after a dispute at an Alabama gas station. Details about what drew police to the gas station were not released at the time. Doak had a lengthy criminal history that included arrests for theft, burglary and criminal damage to property. The couple had been dating for three years.
Around this time, Shannon began selling her belongings and eventually her home. This was also when she lost custody of Thompson.
In 2020, on the family’s latest reality show, “Mama June: Family Crisis,” they began to discuss a path for her to return to Thompson’s life. That’s when she dropped the big confession about her past drug habits.
“The only reason I sold the house … we was dead f—ing broke,” she explained. “Because, you know, at that point, we was doing quite a bit. I mean, it was a couple ounces a day. Our habit was $2,500 a day, if not more.”
Mama June’s drug abuse had not only threatened their lives but also their financial security.
Despite earning hundreds of thousands of dollars from the show, Mama June allegedly blew through it all.
Thompson claimed in a recent interview with People that despite starring in the popular show, she’s never seen any of the money from it.
She also alleged that her mother took $35,000 from her earnings during her appearance on “Dancing with the Stars” in 2019, only returning the money recently but without any apology.
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As Thompson endured a tumultuous past, she eventually found the strength to stand up and move forward.
“That’s it. I’m done with Mama June,” Thompson’s character says in the biopic, acknowledging she was no longer the little girl trying to prove her worth.
Thompson says she was under immense pressure from an early age to generate income, forced into a role she never asked for.
The former child star is now a rising junior in college, studying nursing and living in Colorado with her boyfriend, Dralin Carswell, 24.
While her mother is five years sober, Thompson previously opened up about how difficult it was to forgive her.
“[Forgiveness] 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. We’re going pretty good. Hopefully it lasts. I just no longer have any expectations for her.”
Mama June did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
“I Was Honey Boo Boo” premieres on Lifetime May 17 at 8 ET.
