"I don't need the drama."
A 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant named Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson once said those cheeky words on her TV show, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. And yet, 10 years, several spinoffs and endless headlines later, the Toddlers & Tiaras alum and her family are still drawing viewers in with their on and off screen antics.
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo premiered on Aug. 8, 2012 and immediately became a guilty pleasure for viewers, thanks to Honey Boo Boo's hilarious one-liners. That and the complicated relationships between matriarch June "Mama June" Shannon, her boyfriend Mike "Sugar Bear" Thompson and Mama June's three older daughters, Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell, Jessica "Chubbs" Shannon and Lauryn "Pumpkin" Shannon.
While the show ended its four-season run in 2014, audiences have continued to watch as Mama June and Sugar Bear split, both have gotten remarried and Pumpkin has welcomed four children.
Not to say their lives have remained entirely off of TV. Various spinoffs—including Mama June: Road to Redemption, which just wrapped its fifth season in July—have followed the family and their drama, such as a custody battle for Alana and Mama June's battle with substance abuse.
Still, there are events to celebrate, like, if you want to feel old, Alana, 16, graduating high school next year. They grow up so fast, right?
Check out how the stars of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo have changed over the years:
Thanks to her scene-stealing turn on Toddlers & Tiaras, spunky beauty pageant contestant Alana, then 6, landed herself and her eccentric family a spinoff. Although Here Comes Honey Boo Boo ended in 2014, Alana's time on TV has continued with the follow-up series, Mama June: From Hot to Not, Mama June: Road to Redemption, as well as appearances on Dancing With the Stars: Junior and The Masked Singer.
Last September, Alana revealed she had her first boyfriend, confirming her relationship with her "Bae" Dralin Carswell, a 20-year-old college student, in an Instagram post.
"He's very loving for sure," Alana told E! News in July of 2022. "He's very affectionate at certain times. There's a lot of stuff about him that I like. I'm very, very happy."
In May 2023, Alana graduated high school.
The mother of four has had quite the reality TV journey since first appearing on Toddlers & Tiaras in 2012.
Despite a visit to Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars, she and Alana's father Mike "Sugar Bear" Thompson split in 2014. June then moved on with Geno Doak—and the couple were was arrested for alleged possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia in 2019. Geno faced an additional charge of alleged domestic violence third degree along with alleged possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia. After pleading not guilty, June was ultimately sentenced to 100 hours of community service, court supervision and other conditions, like random drug screenings.
June's relationship and struggles with addiction strained her relationship with her four daughters, though she's been working to repair them on Mama June: Road to Redemption. In June 2021, after breaking up with Geno, she got sober and, the following March, she quietly married Justin Stroud during a courthouse ceremony in Georgia after dating for nine months.
June, 43, underwent gastric sleeve surgery in 2015, a journey that was documented on WE tv's Mama June: From Hot to Not, with the reality star losing more than 300 pounds and achieving her goal of wearing a size 4 dress to Sugar Bear's wedding to his new girlfriend. June also underwent a breast augmentation, had excess skin removed from her neck and got veneers.
Though Alana was Sugar Bear's only biological child with June, he served as a father figure to all of her daughters on Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. But when he and June broke up after eight years together, his relationship with Alana became strained and his attempts to reconcile with her have been documented on the various spinoffs.
In 2017, Sugar Bear married Jennifer Lamb, becoming a stepfather to her two children. But the couple split in 2021, with Jennifer confirming then news of their divorce on Facebook. In May, the 50-year-old went public with his new girlfriend, nurse Heather Rood.
After June accused him of being "very emotionally and physically" abusive during their relationship when she appeared on The Wendy Williams Show in 2017, Sugar Bear denied her claims.
"The abuse allegations are not true," he told Entertainment Tonight. "June is saying these things because she's pissed at me."
Anna is the eldest daughter of Mama June and her father is David Dunn.
In 2012, Anna gave birth to her first daughter, Kaitlyn Elizabeth Clark—which was documented in the season one finale of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo—with boyfriend Caleb Clark, though the couple split two years later. The 27-year-old went on to marry Michael Cardwell in 2014, welcoming their daughter in Kylee Madison the following year. After their divorce in 2017, Anna moved back to Georgia with her two children and is dating Eldridge Toney, though she does not appear on Mama June: Road to Redemption.
In 2023, it was revealed that Anna is battling stage 4 adrenal carcinoma.
June's second daughter, Jessica's father is Michael Anthony Ford and she is the first in her family to graduate from high school.
Jessica, 25, currently lives with Pumpkin and Alana and appears on Mama June: Road to Redemption.
Pumpkin was raised believing Mark McDaniel, a convicted sex offender who Anna alleged sexually assaulted her as a child, was her dad. But June admitted in 2014 interview with Entertainment Tonight that the father of her third daughter is Michael Anthony Ford, another convicted sex offender.
Pumpkin, 22, married Joshua Efird in 2018, and the couple have four children: Ella, 4, Bentley, 2, and twins Sylus and Stella, who were born in May 2022.
Following June's legal issues, Pumpkin was granted permanent legal guardianship of Alana, who has lived with her since 2019. She's recently admitted her mother's struggles have put a strain on her relationship with Josh.
"Over the last couple of years, Mama has been a lot of me and Josh's marriage problems," she revealed in the June 10 episode of Mama June: Road to Redemption. "We're trying to put our marriage at the very top priority and our biggest thing in order to do that is letting Josh be able to walk away when either Mama is being talked about or physically here."