"I don't know what happened to it" - Alana Thompson reveals she 'never, ever received' any money from Toddlers and Tiaras or Here Comes Honey Boo Boo

In a recent interview, Alana Thompson has revealed that she never got compensated for her performances on TLC's Toddlers & Tiaras and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. The TV reality star has reignited concerns over the financial safeguards for child artists.

While referring to the money earned, she confessed to PEOPLE,

"I don't know what happened to it."

The 19-year-old Alana Thompson recently informed PEOPLE and US Weekly that she has not been paid for her work as a child star on two popular TLC reality programs. She said:

"I never had gotten all the money. 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."

Thompson's lively personality on Toddlers & Tiaras, which gave rise to the spin-off Here Comes the Boo Boo, made her famous at the age of five. She asserts that even though the program was successful and ran for several seasons from 2012 to 2017, the money never made it to her.

Alana Thompson's Coogan account, a constitutionally mandated trust for child performers that protects a percentage of their earnings until maturity, was purportedly accessed by Thompson's mother, June "Mama June" Shannon. According to the teenager, her mother took $35,000 out of her 2019 Dancing With the Stars winnings, without any apologies, and returned the money quite recently.

This was all on Mama June: Family Crisis, where she disclosed:

“I let my mama drag me through a lot of s---, but I think my breaking point was when she stole my money.”

Later, she found that her account had only been credited with the required minimum of 20%. June claims that the remainder was utilized to help with Alana Thompson's upbringing. She has thought of taking legal action, but remains doubtful. She said:

"I thought about suing her at one point, but I just know that 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."

Alana Thompson's struggles

Alana Thompson's family struggles are well recorded on the reality show Mama June: Family Crisis. After June battled drug addiction, custody was awarded to her elder sister, Lauryn "Pumpkin" Efird, in 2022. At the time, Alana was just 14 years old.

According to the interview with PEOPLE, while talking about her mother's addiction, she stated,

"I noticed something was off about her. She started locking her doors, which really made me think, ‘Oh, what is she doing?’."

Her mother's addiction was challenging for Alana to cope with, as she felt ashamed of her actions. She remembered,

"People were like, ‘I saw your mama on the news with a busted tooth, strung out.’ I’m like, ‘Great, like I didn’t see that too'."

Mama June has openly acknowledged that she sold the family house to support her addiction, in addition to spending a lot of money on drugs in a single year. In an earlier episode, she stated:

"The only reason I sold the house… we was dead f---ing broke. Because, you know, at that point we was doing quite a bit. I mean, it was a couple ounces a day. Our habit was $2,500 a day, if not more."

Alana Thompson, in response to her mother's addiction, stated,

"[Forgiveness] was hard, but at the end of the day, she’s my mom. When she was bad in her addiction, I just kept thinking about the day she’d recover. We’re going pretty good. Hopefully it lasts. I just no longer have any expectations for her."

She also talked about how being on reality TV as a child impacted her body image and mental health, in addition to her financial problems. She stated:

“For the most part, I’m very confident in myself and what I wear. I’m kind of just like, ‘Who gives a damn?’” A lot of people look at bigger girls and they’re like, ‘Oh, they’re not healthy.’ But I feel like healthy bodies come in all different shapes and sizes. I’m completely healthy. I may be a little bit bigger, but I’m completely healthy.”

Talking about her mother, who had just lost a lot of weight, to US Weekly, she explained,

“That was just mainly because my mom was going from not to hot. She was a bigger girl and I’ve always been a bigger girl myself too. And just to see my mom go from 300 pounds to 100 pounds was a shock to me just because it’s like, ‘Am I going to have to do that one day because I’m a bigger girl? [Are] people not going to love me until I get surgery or I’m this thin pretty little girl?’."

Alana Thompson is focused on the future despite the struggles in her past. She is currently attempting to regain her financial independence while attending Regis University in Colorado as a nursing student. She recently starred on the documentary I Was Honey Boo Boo on Lifetime, which retraces her path from child celebrity to self empowerment. Alana Thompson stated:

"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."

According to her sister, a new Coogan account was set up for Alana Thompson, which she says hasn't yet been touched. She said:

"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. And when I do actually need it, it'll be there for me."

Trending

Stay tuned to Soap Central for more information.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback