Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson might be a well-known reality star — but that doesn’t mean she’s been paid like one.
“I never had gotten all the money. I have never, ever received the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo money. I’ve never seen it,” Thompson, 19, claimed in an interview with People published on Saturday, May 24, alleging that she has received zero funds from her time starring on both reality TV shows Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Toddlers & Tiaras.
“Never ever even heard of it, if I’m being completely honest,” she added. “I don’t know what happened to it.”
This isn’t the first time money has been a contentious topic for Thompson, who rose to fame when she starred on Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, which aired on TLC from 2012 to 2017. The series followed the child beauty pageant contestant and her family, including mom June “Mama June” Shannon — who stars in the WeTV spinoff series, Mama June: From Not to Hot. The show began airing in 2017, with season 7 set to premiere on May 30.
An April 2025 trailer for the upcoming season revealed Thompson and Shannon are still sparring over cash. The clip begins with June telling the group, “Even though we might be a dysfunctional family, the dysfunctionality works for our family.” In the next clip, Thompson is seen asking Shannon for the money she owes, as June hands her what appears to be a dry-erase board in the shape of a giant check.
“This isn’t a game,” Thompson tells the camera.
Growing up as a reality TV star hasn’t just impacted Thompson’s bank account. The former beauty pageant star said her time in front of the cameras has also impacted her own body image — for better and for worse.
“For the most part, I’m very confident in myself and what I wear. I’m kind of just like, ‘Who gives a damn?’” Thompson, 19, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting Lifetime’s new series I Was Honey Boo Boo. “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.”
Thompson — whose mom underwent a full body transformation, including a 2015 gastric sleeve — noted that the show contributed to her own issues surrounding body image and a sense of self..
“That was just mainly because my mom was going from not to hot,” Thompson explained to Us. “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?’”
She continued, “So it was very hard on me, but after a while I noticed that either way my mom was still getting shown love, so I was like, I mean she’s still getting shown love.”
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