Mama June Shannon, Honey Boo Boo’s mum, spent $1 million on drugs in a year

Reality TV star Mama June Shannon says she and boyfriend Geno Doak dropped over $1 million on dope during the height of her drug addiction.“I would say the last year of our addiction, probably a good $900,000 [$A1.2 million],” the mother of Toddlers and Tiaras’ Honey Boo Boo told Access Hollywood this week.
“So much money was sent to our dope man.”
At one point, the TLC star says, she sent her dealer $103,000 in a single Cash app transaction. She also said she was waiting on $19,000 to get her “last high,” but the payment was late, so instead, she decided to enter rehab.
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“I went into rehab with $1.75 ($A2.26) to my name,” the Mama June: Road to Redemption star said. “And I came out with nothing.”
The 41-year-old reality star — who has been clean now for 14 months — added that she’s had to “learn those old hustles” to make money recently since production was stalled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s so much easier for me to say, ‘Hey, I don’t want to feel this,’” she said, adding, “I don’t want to go back to that. I don’t want to have my bank accounts overdrawn.”
Shannon’s substance abuse issues first came to light in March 2019 when she was arrested on suspicion of felony possession of a controlled substance for crack cocaine and drug paraphernalia alongside Doak.
The mother of four admitted in a reunion with her daughter Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon on Mama June: Family Crisis last year that she and Doak, 45, spent $3,200 a day on meth.
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“I was around drugs my whole life,” Shannon explained to Access Hollywood’s Kit Hoover, citing her sibling’s struggles. “Addiction does run in my family.”
The reality star shared that she used meth off and on until 2015, but started doing cocaine two years later.
“In this industry, it’s kind of crazy that until you get busted it’s okay, and I think that is the wrong way to be, but it is — it’s true,” she said.
Shannon and her family were thrust into the spotlight after her youngest daughter, Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson, appeared on an episode of Toddlers and Tiaras.
From there, her family got their own show, Here Comes Honey Boo, and later a spinoff, Mama June: From Not to Hot, that documented Shannon’s weight loss.
Although Shannon said she has put 32 kilograms back on after losing 136kgs, she is much more focused on her sobriety.
“You miss so much,” the mother of four said. “My kids stopped talking to me … so now our thing is that we’re trying to redeem our kids and it’s been a process. Addiction is selfish, but my recovery is selfish also.”
Shannon said that because she still has an “addictive personality,” she is now addicted to “helping people in recovery.”
This story originally appeared on the New York Post and is reproduced here with permission.