Alana was and has been a reality TV staple across the last decade and change — from her appearances in Toddlers & Tiaras and Dancing with the Stars to the TV show that launched her to fame, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.
Of course, reality TV fame doesn’t always translate to tangible wealth — and in a new interview with People, Alana revealed that she hasn’t seen much money at all from her television stardom.
“I never had gotten all the money,” she said. “I have never, ever received the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo money. I’ve never seen it. Never ever even heard of it, if I’m being completely honest. I don’t know what happened to it.”
What’s more, Alana claims that her mother, Mama June Shannon, effectively stole $35,000 of her earnings from appearing on Dancing with the Stars’ “Juniors” season in 2018.
“I let my mama drag me through a lot of shit, but I think my breaking point was when she stole my money,” Alana alleged, further claiming that June recently returned the money to her but didn’t directly apologize to her for taking it.
Alana went on to claim that, to this day, she doesn’t know how much money she actually made from TV. “It was just so long ago,” she said. “At that time, Mama always just stressed to us like, ‘Oh, I’m setting you up for your future. You have Coogan accounts.’ And it’s like, ‘Where are the Coogan accounts now?'”
Alana also says she considered suing June at one point, but hesitated to because “I wouldn’t probably get anything out of the end of the bargain because by law, she did what was right.”
“By law, she at least put 20 percent in my account. And the other 80, she said that she used to take care of me. So the law, I feel like wouldn’t see really a problem with what she did, I guess.”
In case you didn’t know, Alana also narrates a Lifetime dramatized film about her rise to fame, I Was Honey Boo Boo. In the interview, Alana also says that her work on the film has helped her pay for college.
“I’m hoping that there’s more work coming for me in the future, but with this movie plus filming on the [Mama June: Family Crisis] show, I’ve just kind of been saving and making sure that I don’t get to the end of my pot,” she says, before noting that her sister Pumpkin also set up a Coogan account for her when she obtained custody of Alana in 2022.
“I’ve yet to even go and get that, if I’m being honest, because I’m in the mindset of — if I don’t actually need it, I might as well just let it save up,” she said. “And when I do actually need it, it’ll be there for me.”
You can watch I Was Honey Boo Boo here.
