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Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson loves “Mama June” Shannon.
Really, she does. Even after June’s downward spiral of crack addiction, financial theft, and more.
Now, Alana is telling her story in a biopic.
This isn’t character assassination against her mother. But telling her story means dredging up a lot of painful truths.
Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson is telling her story, (metaphorical) warts and all
On Tuesday, May 13, Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson spoke to People about her upcoming biopic.
I Was Honey Boo Boo will release on Lifetime on May 17. There, Alana opens up about what the family has endured — including during “Mama June” Shannon’s downward spiral that cost her everything — except for her life.
“I’m a little nervous,” confessed the 19-year-old reality TV personality and college student.
“I did not want this movie to be throwing punches at my mama and making her out to be the bad guy,” Alana emphasized.
“But I didn’t hold back,” she then admitted. “And if she gets mad, at the end of the day, it’s the truth.”
Alana is a young adult. But June’s spiral into addiction — which included crack cocaine — began when Alana was still a child.
Mama June Shannon’s crack cocaine addiction didn’t happen overnight
“I noticed something was off about her,” Alana recalled. “She started locking her doors, which really made me think, ‘Oh, what is she doing?’”
In 2019, June was no longer able to hide her increasing problem with substance abuse from anyone — including the public. Including authorities.
Memorably, she and then-boyfriend Geno Doak were arrested.
This heralded the horrors in the months to come as June’s face, body, behavior, home, and finances all quickly became visibly worse for wear.
“People were like, ‘I saw your mama on the news with a busted tooth, strung out,’” Alana recalled. “I’m like, ‘Great, like I didn’t see that too.’”
During that time, June spent more than $1 million of her own money and sold off her large suburban home to pay for her addiction.
June also stole $35,000 of Alana’s Dancing With The Stars pay before being cut off — and custody of Alana going to Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon. (June did, years later, pay back her daughter — but notably without an apology)
Alana is looking forward to what the future holds
“I just always told myself, you know, that you want to do something better with your life and bigger with your life than just being on TV,” Alana affirmed.
She continued: “So you’ve got to get up and go, you’ve got to graduate so you can make it to college and be the nurse that you want to be.” She is in college and studying to be a nurse, in fact!
“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,” Alana shared.
“We’re going pretty good. Hopefully it lasts. I just no longer have any expectations for her.”