Mama June Admits Taking Daughter Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson’s Entire $35K ‘Dancing with the Stars’ Fee
‘Mama June’ Shannon has admitted to spending $35,000 of her daughter Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson’s money, leading to increased tension between mother and daughter.
Viewers will see the fallout on Friday’s (April 12) episode of We TV’s Mama June: Family Crisis, where the reality star is confronted about having spent the entirety of Alana’s fee from Dancing With The Stars: Juniors, which amounted to $35,000.
Speaking to DailyMail.com ahead of the episode, June confessed to spending the DWTS money but claimed she has not touched the rest of her daughter’s savings, which stands in the six figures.
“I did not spend 12 years of money. It was only from one show [Dancing With The Stars],” June said, revealing she used the money on household bills, manicures, and other “life expenses.”
“Alana has money in a Coogan account [a special blocked trust fund account for child stars] that she is choosing not to touch – and it is in the six figures. It’s like is over $200,000,” she continued.
June added, “In the episode this Friday, people will hopefully see that… they will see that it’s not six figures that was spent. She doesn’t not have money. She’s not broke.”
Mama June and Alana rose to fame on the TLC reality series Toddlers & Tiaras, which followed the families of contestants in a child beauty pageant. June and Alana’s popularity with viewers led to the spinoff series Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, which aired from August 8, 2012, to August 14, 2014.
Alana appeared on the Dancing With The Stars spinoff series in 2018, where she was the fifth person eliminated. According to June, the total fee for Alana’s appearance was $60,000, but after California taxes, only $35,000 remained.
“It is really only $30,000,’ she told DailyMail.com. “That’s not a lot of money. We paid the bills with that, it went on whatever her needs were, whether it was getting her nails done or her lashes done or whatever it was.”
She continued, “Unfortunately, I didn’t have a ton of money myself. I used that money to reinvest in her and support us through that time because we stayed out in California for almost a month after she got off Dancing With The Stars.”
“It’s not hundreds of thousands of dollars,” she explained. “It was only the money from the one show, and I put the recommended amount of money, which was 20% into her savings. And, you know, this may sound rude, but legally, I don’t have to pay or give any money back.”
Recent episodes of Mama June: Family Crisis have shown tension between June and Alana, but the matriarch said they managed to come to an arrangement over the missing funds without bringing lawyers into it.
“We’ve chose to go another route just to kind of like squish everything and continue to move forward as a family,” June stated, while noting she and Alana are still “working on things” when it comes to patching up their relationship.
In the upcoming episode, June and her husband, Justin, surprise Alana in Colorado, but they’re turned away.
“I thought I made it very clear to Mama to not come visit me in Colorado because I’m still pi**** at her for stealing my money,” Alana says in the episode, per DailyMail. “I feel like Mama now is just trying to make up for her mistake, but she is so aggravating because I didn’t want her here.”
The latest dispute comes after June refused to contribute to Alana’s college fund.
“I’m still rebuilding my life… that is why I have chosen to give her some tough love and say ‘No, I’m not going to pay for college,’ June said in an earlier episode. “It’s me wanting her to see the bigger picture.”
Alana responded in confessional, “Maybe she thinks that paying for Justin’s chains or something is more important than giving it to me for college. She’s stingy when it comes to money.”
Mama June: Family Crisis, Fridays, 9 pm et, We TV
