Mama June Shannon's Daughters: All About Alana, Lauryn, Jessica and Anna

Mar. 15, 2025

Mama June Shannon and her four daughters.Photo: Christine Salvador/WE tv

Mama June Shannonis rebuilding her relationship with her children.

TheMama June: Road to Redemptionstar, who rose to fame alongside her youngest daughter Alana “Honey Boo Boo” in TLC’sToddlers & Tiarasin 2009, is mom to four daughters: Jessica “Chubbs” Shannon, Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efrid,Alana “Honey Boo Boo” ThompsonandAnna “Chickadee” Cardwell, who died on Dec. 9, 2023 after being diagnosed withadrenal carcinomathe previous January.

After capturing viewers' interest as a dynamic mother-daughter duo on the pageant series, Alana and Shannon were offereda spin-off show of their own:Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. The show ran from 2012 until 2014, when the family matriarch was reportedlydating a convicted sex offender.

The mom of four then starred in her own weight loss transformation show in 2017, WE tv’sMama June: From Not to Hot,later rebranded asMama June: Road to Redemption,as she worked toearn a “second chance"with her family.

The series has chronicled a number of thescandals and controversiesthe family has weathered in the years since, fromShannon arrest on drug possession chargesin 2019 to herlosing custody of Alanain April 2022, when Lauryn “Pumpkin” was awarded sole custody of her younger sister after three years of taking care of her.

“Pumpkin stepping up, I’m very grateful becauseit could’ve turned into a bad situation,” Shannon toldPage Sixin June 2022. “At the time Alana went to go live with Pumpkin at the beginning, I couldn’t even take care of my own self, more less take care of anybody else.”

On March 23, 2022, Shannonwed her boyfriend of six months, Justin Stroud, at a Georgia courthouse, Nearly a year later, she and Stroudgot married for a second timein an “intimate oceanfront ceremony” on Feb. 18, 2023. Shannon’s four daughters were all in attendance for the special occasion.

Gotham/GC Images

Just one month later, fans learned why the occasion was particularly special for the family. In March 2023, PEOPLE confirmed thatAnna had been diagnosedwith stage 4 adrenal carcinoma back in January.

While promoting the sixth season of what WE tv is now callingMama June: Family Crisis, the mom-of-four opened up to PEOPLE about her parenting pitfalls.

“Parents or kids don’t come with an instruction manual. I’m sure that I’m going to make a few mistakes in the future, and I’m sure they will, too,” she said in May 2023. “I’m not going to say that I’m going to be perfect for the rest of their life, and they’re not going to be perfect the rest of my life.”

Here’s everything to know about Mama June’s four daughters, Anna, Jessica, Lauryn and Alana.

Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell

Anna Cardwell/Instagram

June and Anna’s relationship had been strained since 2003 when Anna moved out of her mother’s house and in with her grandmother aftersurviving assault from her mother’s then-boyfriend, registered sex offender Mark McDaniel. In 2014, she told PEOPLE that McDaniel “would try and touch me and all that stuff” when she was 8 years old.

“A week or so after it happened, I talked to Mama and she was upset, crying and saying, ‘I don’t believe you, I don’t believe you, why would you do this to me?’ " Cardwell told PEOPLE. “And I was like, ‘Mama, he did that to me and I can’t do anything about it. You were never there to see it. You were always at work.’ "

Cardwell moved in with her grandmother afterward, briefly returning to her mom’s home in 2012 ahead ofHere Comes Honey Boo Boo’s premiere. “Me and Mama realized we needed to put this behind us and get our relationship back on track and that’s what we did and that’s what we have been doing,” Cardwell explained.

Anna was a mom to two children of her own: she welcomed daughter Kaitlyn Elizabeth in 2012. Kaitlyn’s biological father is unknown. Two years after her daughter’s arrival, Anna married her boyfriend Michael Cardwell, in 2014. The pair went on to welcome a daughter together,Kylee Madison, in 2015. Anna and Michael ultimately separated in 2017.

In 2015, Anna sued her mother for allegedly unpaid appearances onHere Comes Honey Boo Boo, for which she claimed she and her daughter Kaitlyn were owed $300,000. The mother-daughter pair had remained largely estranged in the years since, though they did reunite for Shannon’s February 2023 nuptials.

“All four of my girls walked me downto Justin and his mom walked him down the aisle,” Shannon told PEOPLE of the big day.

Anna worked at a car dealership, the Five Star Toyota of Milledgeville, Georgia, whichshe posted about frequentlyon Instagram.

On March 30, 2023, PEOPLE confirmed thatAnna had been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. According to TMZ, which first reported the news, Anna was diagnosed with adrenal carcinoma in January after cancer was discovered in her liver, kidney and lung.

On Dec. 10, 2023,Shannon announcedon Instagram that Anna had died. “With the breaking heart, we are announcing that @annamarie35 is no longer with us,” she began the caption of her post alongside a family photograph. “She passed away in my home last night peacefully at 11:12 PM.”

Shannon continued, “She gave one hell of a fight for 10 months she passed away with her family around her like she won’t and we will will be updating y’all with more information as we get it today.”

Alana followed up the tragic news with an Instagram post of her own, in which shepaid tributeto her older sister. “We will all make sure your legacy lives on forever. And i promise to always make sure to celebrate our birthday like you never left! The sky looks a little bit different today. We will always love you Anna,” she wrote.

In September 2024, Shannon was awarded custody of Kaitlyn after the child’s stepfather, Michael Cardwell (who is not her biological father) filed for custody and visitation in December 2023. A family therapist testified that Kaitlyn “expressed a desire to stay” with Shannon and said she “fears being taken away from” her grandmother.

One year after Anna’s death, Shannon told PEOPLE that she and the rest of her family are “keeping her as aliveas [best as] we can.”

“We just want people to remember Anna and stuff like that,” she said. “Whether it’s this year or next year or three years from now, we want her to be remembered, always.”

Jessica “Chubbs” Shannon, 28

Jessica Shannon Instagram

Shannon’s second oldest daughter, nicknamed “Chubbs” on their reality shows, was born on Oct. 12, 1996, to June and her ex Michael Anthony Ford.

Ford is also aconvicted sex offender, who went to jail for the sexual exploitation of minors after being caught onTo Catch a Predatorin 2005.

Jessica has appeared alongside her family on each of their reality shows, as well as on an episode of Steve Harvey’sFamily Feud. She graduated from Wilkinson Country High School in 2015 and graduated college in May 2018. “Y’all I made it👩‍🎓 It was hard but I pulled thru💕💕,” the new grad captioned a photo of herself in a cap and gown onInstagram.

In February 2020, Jessica and Anna flew from Georgia to Beverly Hills together toundergo full-body makeovers. Jessica revealed toHollywood Lifethat the procedures, which totaled over $80,000, included liposuction, a gastric balloon, veneers, highlights and more. She has continued to proudly document her weight loss journey on Instagram in the years since.

“It’s been life changing,” Jessica told the outlet, adding, “I wouldn’t trade it for the world.” She explained that before the procedures, she had struggled with feeling deeply self-conscious for years. “Me and my sister would go out and do something and I would change five, six times, because I felt like I couldn’t find something that actually looked decent on me, or I turned around because I [thought] somebody was judging me.”

Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efird, 25

Lauryn Efird Instagram

June’s third oldest daughter, nicknamed “Pumpkin,” was born on Jan. 7, 2000. Lauryn grew up believing that her biological father was Mark McDaniel, who went to jail for child molestation in 2004.

When Lauryn was 14, June revealed toETthat her father was not McDaniel, but her ex Michael Anthony Ford. “Jessica and Pumpkin have the same dad, but Jessica’s dad has had nothing to do with her over the years,” Shannon said. “So, why the hell would I open up that can of worms until today? I lied to my family and told them it was somebody else.”

Lauryn has joined her family on all of their reality ventures, fromHere Comes Honey Boo BootoMama June: Road to Redemption.

In December 2017, Lauryn became a mom for the first time when she and Joshua Efird welcomed daughter Ella Grace together. The following year, the new parentstied the knot in Las Vegas.

In May 2022,Lauryn and Josh welcomed twins: a girl and a boy named Sylus and Stella, whom they’ve shared a few sweetphotosof on Instagram.

The following month,Lauryn was officially granted full custodyof her younger sister Alana,who has been living with hersince Shannon was arrested on drug possession charges in 2019. Shannon was also required to pay Lauryn $800 per month in child support until Alana turned 18.

Lauryn admitted that caring for Alana, in addition to her kids, was a difficult adjustment to make back in 2020.

“My mom has four kids. Three of us are grown and can take care of ourselves and can cook for ourselves and we all pay our own bills. But at the end of the day, Alana’s still 14 and she needs her mom,” Pumpkin toldEntertainment Tonight. “It’s been very difficult because… she is younger and she needs her mom. So it’s been very hard for both me and her to adjust to me being her ‘sister mom.’ "

Speaking aboutwhere things currently stand with her mom, Lauryn told PEOPLE, “I’m just at a place where I just want to fix things with my mom and move on.”

In December 2024, Shannon told PEOPLE that she “even triednot to get her to marry Joshyears ago” after the former couple met as teenagers.

“But as far as Pumpkin goes, I think our relationship has got better since her and Josh have separated,” she said. “We do more stuff together.”

Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Shannon, 19

Alana Thompson Instagram

Shannon’s youngest daughter is Alana, who rose to fame onToddlers & Tiarasas “Honey Boo Boo” thanks to her viral catchphrase on the pageant show. Alana was born on Aug. 28, 2005, to June and her ex Mike Thompson, nicknamed “Sugar Bear.”

Alana has continued to appear in reality shows, from her own TLC spinoff show,Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, toDancing with the Stars: Juniors,The Masked SingerandMama June: Road to Redemption.

Speaking to PEOPLE abouther motivation for performing onDWTS Junior, she explained, “I wanted to do it because when they asked me, I thought this is something that I’ve never done and it’d be super fun and a great experience. So I figured, let’s do it!” She added that her mom was “so supportive” of the experience.

In 2019, Alana moved in with her half-sister Lauryn, who has legal guardianship of her.

Alana opened up aboutgrowing out of her child star personain an August 2021 interview withTeen Vogue. “My mama did not name me Honey Boo Boo. My name is Alana,” she told the outlet, explaining, “They are completely two different people.”

Reflecting on where she is in life currently, Alana shared that she is proud of herself. “When my mama got real bad with her [drug use], I didn’t know where I was going to end up,” she said. “I’m proud of myself for how far I’ve come.”

Though Alana seeminglyshaded her mom’s parentingin an October 2022 TikTok, it appears the two may be on better terms now as Alana joined her sisters in walking Shannon down the aisle at her wedding.

Alana iscurrently dating 21-year-old Dralin Carswell. “In our relationship, the two most things that everybody is always talking about is our age gap and definitely because he’s Black and I’m white and we’re an interracial couple,” Alana toldEntertainment Tonight.

“I don’t care,” she continued. “Because, like, at the end of the day, my sister approves, his mom approves, and we’re happy, so what fans got to say or what haters got to say I don’t really care.”

Carswell was arrestedon Feb. 28, 2023, for DUI, fleeing police and outstanding warrants after a three-mile car chase in Monroe County, Georgia. Alana was a passenger in the car during the chase.

According to authorities, an officer eventually used a PIT (precision immobilization technique) maneuver, spinning and disabling Carswell’s vehicle.

source: people.com