She’s come a long way! Fans were first introduced to Mama June Shannon on the hit TLC reality show, Toddlers and Tiaras — and it didn’t take long for the mother of four to land another spinoff, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, which was all about her spunky daughter, Alana Thompson (a.k.a. Honey Boo Boo).
Over the years, Mama June started opening up about her weight loss struggles and even documented her drastic transformation on her own WE tv show, Mama June: From Not to Hot. As she got candid about her peaks and pitfalls, viewers also got to see her family’s reaction to her new look.
June’s life took a turn for the worse in 2019 when she found herself battling addiction, which led to an arrest and an estrangement from her family. In order to document her struggles, Mama June: From Not to Hot was rebranded to Mama June: Family Crisis for its fourth season.
Throughout season 4, fans watched as Alana, older sister Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon, aunt Jo “Doe Doe” Shannon and cousin Amber Shannon tried to locate June, who had been traveling throughout Georgia and Alabama with boyfriend Geno Doak. With the help of production, and We TV personality Dr. Ish Major, they were able to locate June and she agreed to meet with Pumpkin for an intervention.
Following the intervention, June and Geno agreed to enroll in a 30-day inpatient rehab program at Banyan Treatment Center in Stuart, Florida. While chatting with a counselor, June opened up about why she waited so long to seek treatment.
“Like, I’m not OK with saying I’m an addict yet. I have an addictive personality, but I don’t feel like I’m a crackhead,” June revealed. “Cause even though I was doing cocaine, I wasn’t smoking crack. It’s hard for me to say that right now. I know everyone’s trying to pull it out of me.”
After completing day 30 of the program with Geno, the couple celebrated with a graduation ceremony as they prepared to embark on their new lives while attending outpatient therapy. “[With] my addiction to crack cocaine, I didn’t feel like I was an addict, if that makes sense. But now that we’re ready or whatever I mean am definitely am an addict,” June told her peers at the ceremony.
“The old June is back. I mean, I’m feeling good just being back to my old self. We made it through inpatient together so we’re just going to make a new start for us. We worked really hard to get where we’re at right now and neither one of us wanted to go to inpatient and we just gotta stay clean,” June said in her confessional. “I don’t really know what life is ahead. Nobody can tell what six months looks like from now you can only take it one day at a time sometimes minute by minute second by second. I mean, the world better watch out. I’m back, bitches, and here we go.”
Now, it seems they are both doing better than ever. Scroll through the gallery to see Mama June’s weight loss transformation.