Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson is speaking out about her struggles as a child star.
The now-19-year-old rose to fame at the age of 5 when she appeared in a classic episode of TLC’s “Toddlers & Tiaras.” TLC later gave her family their own reality show, “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” in 2012.
Thompson claimed in a new 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, June “Mama June” Shannon, 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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“There was no, ‘I’m sorry,’” Thompson said.
Shannon has been candid about her struggle with drug addiction, sharing in the past that she went broke funding her habit. She’s now sober, but for much of Thompson’s childhood, she was in active addiction, to the point where Thompson’s older sister, Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efird, took custody of her when she was 14.
“I noticed something was off about her,” Thompson told People of Shannon’s addiction. “She started locking her doors, which really made me think, ‘Oh, what is she doing?’”
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Thompson admitted her mother’s drug addiction humiliated her, even when she attended school.
“People were like, ‘I saw your mama on the news with a busted tooth, strung out,’” Thompson remembered. “I’m like, ‘Great, like I didn’t see that too.’”
Still, she pushed past her hurdles and focused on her education, explaining, “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, 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.”
In 2019, Shannon along with her boyfriend, Geno Doak, was arrested on suspicion of drug possession following a domestic 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.
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In 2020, Shannon and Efird met on the family’s latest reality show, “Mama June: Family Crisis,” 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.”
While Shannon is now five years sober, Thompson opened up about how difficult it was to forgive her mother’s tumultuous past.
“[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.”
Thompson is currently a rising junior in college, studying nursing and living in Colorado with her longtime boyfriend, Dralin Carswell, 24.
Shannon did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
