Mama June, who rose to fame on TLC’s “Here Come Honey Boo Boo,” had had a difficult couple of years. Not only did her daughter, Anna ‘Chickadee’ Cardwell, pass away in 2023, but Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson was in a horrific car accident last year. Now, the “Mama June: From Not to Hot” star is opening up about a recent health scare.
Mama June Shannon Says She Had An Unexpected Operation
GettyJune appeared on Page Six’s Virtual Reali-Tea on March 3, 2026, alongside her daughters, Thompson, Jessica “Chubbs” Shannon, and Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efird. During the conversation, she admitted that she’d had a health scare in April 2025.
According to June, “I had a total hysterectomy unexpectedly last year — last April. It was not expected. It was a scare for me because I did have some fibroid cysts that went to separated cysts, and we had a little scare.”
The “Mama June: From Not to Hot” star then referenced her daughter, Cardwell, who passed away in December 2023 from stage 4 adrenal carcinoma. She had been diagnosed in January of the same year. Mama June said, “Me, in my mind, going what Anna went through, I was worried it was going to be ovarian cancer.”
She then discussed her health today, saying, “Some days are a struggle for me, but it’s nothing like the ‘C’ word, but like I tell people, we know it’s not gonna ever kill me, but it could immobilize me.”
She Opened Up About Grief in December 2025
Cardwell passed away on December 9, 2023, after her difficult battle with cancer. Two years later, Mama June took to Instagram to tribute her daughter. She did so by posting a video where she discussed the grief she still feels despite people who engage with her on social media viewing her as detached.
June began in the caption, “Today has been 2 years since @annamarie35 left us, and it feel like a dream it isn’t right and everyday is a struggle as losing a child has been one of the most hardest things that I’ve had to face, even over drug addiction and 46 years.
This is something that I never thought that I would have to deal with, and if you were a mom, that’s also a child. I am sorry, and you understand I’m going through a loss of anyone is hard and people take death, different and different ways, but for me, I’m gonna be honest is a daily struggle, emotionally and mentally, but I get up and do what I need to do, and some days I don’t wanna do that.”
Mama June also encouraged her fans to share their favorite memories of the former “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” star.
The eighth season of “Mama June From Not to Hot” premieres on WeTV on March 13.
