Lauryn Shannon says it is ‘hard to hear’ that Mama June blew through nearly $1million on drugs

Mama June Shannon recently revealed that she and her boyfriend Geno Doak blew through nearly $1million on drugs in just one year during the peak of their addiction.

And the 41-year-old reality star’s daughter Lauryn ‘Pumpkin’ Shannon, 21, was beyond shocked to learn just how much money her mother had spent, admitting that she ‘didn’t know how bad things had really gotten.’

‘When I hear that price and I hear it from the media outlets where she tells her story … it is very hard to hear that because I didn’t know how bad things had really gotten,’ she told TooFab on Wednesday.

Her interview with the outlet comes ahead of Friday’s episode of Mama June: Road to Redemption, where she and her little sister Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson, 15, are set to reunite with their mother ‘for the first time’ since her completed stint in rehab.

Lauryn, who happens to be Alana’s legal guardian, was forced to distance herself and her family, daughter Ella and husband Josh Efird, from June, after trying desperately to help the 41-year-old tackle her addiction.

‘After I moved Alana out, I really tried to work on ourselves as a family, really tried to help mama and then we kind of stepped back for a little while, so I didn’t see her, I didn’t put the kids around her,’ she explained. 

Lauryn noted that, at the the time of their reunion, featured in Friday’s episode, ‘it had be a year since [she and Alana] had physically seen [June].’ 

So, to learn that her mother was ‘blowing a million dollars,’ while she and her husband were ‘struggling trying to do everything we could to keep a roof over Alana’s and Ella’s head’ was incredibly ‘hard to hear.’ 

‘I mean it really is, knowing that — not trying to sound mean and not trying to sound money hungry — but to know that me and Josh were struggling trying to do everything we could to keep a roof over Alana’s and Ella’s head. It’s just like, but you were out here blowing a million dollars and you couldn’t help me?’

Although June has often expressed appreciation towards Lauryn for taking Alana under her wing and into her home, Lauryn told the outlet that she does not think her mother ‘still fully understands the problems she left behind for me.’  

‘Because having to take care of Alana, I feel like she’s appreciative of it, but I feel like the way that she says she’s appreciative of it … I want it to be a little more sincere than that,’ she said.

‘It’s very tough because somebody who was supposed to be there and supposed to be supportive, it just doesn’t seem that way. I’ve done all these things and I’ve matured as a woman and now I gotta take the consequences and I wasn’t even the addict. 

‘It’s not like, okay I just take care of Alana. Like, I have to go through my marriage problems, that caused problems there. It basically caused a whole uproar in everybody’s lives, and it’s just like, she sees it, but she doesn’t see it.’

Rehashing last week’s episode of Mama June: Road to Redemption, Lauryn stressed that June has ‘gotta prove a lot of things’ before she is willing to give her another chance.

‘She’s gotta prove a lot of things. She has to prove to me that she is truly sober. She has to prove to me that she’s not the person that even she was before the addiction, the one who lied about the little things,’ she explained to TooFab. 

‘For me too, she’s gonna have to let it take time. For so long we were on her time. We were on Geno’s addiction clock and things like that. Now, I want you guys to be on my time. I feel like it should be at my own pace.’

Lauryn stressed that she and her family ‘do need [their] space’ and they ‘need [their] time because June’s addiction didn’t happen overnight’ and she feels they deserve to take things one step at a time in order to avoid more hurt.  

‘Her falling into the drug habit didn’t happen overnight or her ruining the family, it didn’t happen overnight. These things take time and that’s just kind of what I need her to see.

‘It’s very frustrating for me when she’s pushy, pushy, pushy, and it’s like, we were pushy, pushy, pushy when we wanted you to go to the first couple of rehabs and you didn’t go.’ 

Recalling the previous season of Mama June: Road to Redemption, Lauryn admitted to TooFab that it was incredibly ‘hard’ for her to watch June and Geno fall further and further into their drug addiction. 

‘I’m an adult, I’m mature, but that is a rough sight to see, especially with it being your mom. It does not make it any easier, you know?’ said Lauryn, noting that despite her frustration she ‘didn’t want [June] to be in that place.’ 

‘I wanted her to get clean before then. We had come to the realization, when it got to that point, that we were just going to see her in a body bag. Honestly, that’s how bad it had gotten.’ 

Lauryn and Alana’s concerns about their mother’s life will be brought to light during next Friday’s episode of Mama June: Road to Redemption, where they will endure a sit-down discussion with June.

‘Seeing Alana cry in general over the Mama situation is very hard because I don’t want her to feel that pain,’ she recalled of the emotional sit-down.

‘I don’t want her to have to beg for her mom or dad’s attention. So, I think it’s good that Mama will be able to hear what we have to say and she has no choice. She can’t run this time. She has to sit down and she has to listen.’

One person that will be absent from the sit-down is June’s boyfriend and fellow addict Geno. who Lauryn has often voiced her distaste towards.

‘I feel like he’s always going to be a part of Mama’s life and we’re just gonna have to face that until she is finally able to get rid … like, she got rid of the addiction part, as far as the drugs, but I do feel like Geno is also an addiction of hers,’ she told TooFab of Geno.

She added that she has ‘always felt’ that way about Geno, even ‘before [June and Geno] were using because my mama just turned into a completely different person.’

Lauryn explained that she saw June go from ‘the highest woman on the pedestal to just, like, dirt’ as her relationship with Geno progressed. 

‘That’s what it felt like, the way he was treating her and things like that, but I’ll fix things or act cool because that is who my mama chooses to be with and I don’t want to cause any problems between me and her. But, in the same respect, he’s just a temporary person and I’m more focused on wanting to fix things with her than him.’

Lauryn also discussed the recent reappearance of Alana’s father Sugar Bear, who was inspired to reconnect with his daughter following a string of recent health struggles. 

‘I have to deal with it at the end of the day. When [Alana] goes and they do a scene together, when she comes back home to me, I have to deal with her. I have to deal with the person who always asks me questions like, “Why didn’t my daddy want something to do with me years ago? Why now?”

‘Just because you had a health scare doesn’t mean that Alana’s supposed to just run back to you with open arms, if he couldn’t be there at her lowest times.’

Lauryn went on to describe Sugar Bear as a ‘lost cause’ and she thinks that Alana should ‘kind of leave it alone’ and focus on ‘working on the relationship with [their] mama.’

To conclude her candid interview, Lauryn stated that she ‘truly’ hopes June can stay sober and beat her addiction, for her daughters’ sake and the sake of her grandchild Ella. 

‘I don’t want Ella to see that side of things that me, Alana and Jessica grew up having to see with my mama. Yeah, she did leave us in a dark time, but we’ve always kind of worked through it. It may take some time, but everything’s not perfect.

As for the possibility of Alana eventually moving back in with June, Lauryn said that she doesn’t ‘ever want to make her choose, because her and Mama have been very close,’ but there would ‘obviously have to be some talking.’