Mama June’s Daughter Pumpkin Says She’s Done With Reality TV
Mama June’s 21-year-old daughter, Lauryn "Pumpkin" Shannon Efird, who starred in Here Comes Honey Boo Boo from 2012-2017, says she’s done with reality TV for now because of the negative impact on her childhood. She also confessed that she and her younger sister, Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, are ready to pursue a more normal life away from the cameras. Lauryn said she wants to work on a nursing career while her little sister said she wants a normal teenage experience.
Audiences came to know Alana through her first reality show, Toddlers and Tiaras. And while Lauryn said reality TV is full of perks, there is a downside. Although the show brought the family together, there were many tough demands. Lauryn opened up about them in a recent interview.
She told Entertainment Tonight that the production schedule is too grueling. It was also a far departure from normal life. "We have two days off a week and I can't get my life together in two days," Lauryn said. "I enjoy doing the show. I enjoy the income that it brings. I enjoy the lives that we impact. Ultimately, I want to go and be a nurse at a hospital. I want to go and make an impact in a hospital somewhere. TV is not something that I think any of us really want to do anymore, but we just keep pushing ourselves.” The sisters announced the decision to step back from cameras after a recent episode of Mama June: Road to Redemption. During the episode, they agreed to meet with their mom, Mama June Shannon, after their mom chose her boyfriend, Geno Doak, and drugs. As of now, Mama June, who completed rehab in early 2020, is 14 months sober.
Sadly, Mama June revealed she has stage 3 lymphedema and will only live for another six months if treatment is not started. Her health crisis is one of the major reasons she wants to re-establish a relationship with Alana and Lauryn. Mama June said she and her boyfriend used to spend at least $2,500 a day on drugs. And after Mama June’s arrest, Lauryn became her sister’s legal guardian. Lauryn said their mother-daughter relationship is incredibly complex, and one of the traits Lauryn is working on is setting boundaries with her mother.
Though Lauryn wants to step away from the grueling production process and have a normal life, she is not opposed to using another social media platform to entertain her fans. She mentioned she could start a YouTube or TikTok account. “People are making money on there. And ultimately, I do want to do a YouTube just with the little family that we have here in our house,” she said. Though she said she wants a normal life, stepping away from all that fame may be harder than it seems for Lauryn, as reality TV has a "moth-to-the-flame" allure to it.
Sources: The Sun, Entertainment Tonight